11

Black-banded Fruit-Doves are big pigeons. Their plumage is almost all black-and white. The head, neck and upper chest are white, ending in a black band across the lower chest that connects with the slate-grey back and wings. Only the rump and the tip of the uppertail are white. From the black chest band, the lower half of the underparts shows various graduations of grey, from dark near the chest band to light-grey on the undertail coverts. The bill is yellowish, the irises are reddish-brown, while the legs and feet are dark greyish-pink. Juveniles have less colour contrast than adults, some scalloping on the dark upperparts, a grey bill and dark irises.

Twitcher's tip

Compared to Torresian Imperial-Pigeon, the Black-banded Fruit-Dove shows a lot more black in its plumage.

The Black-banded Fruit-Dove has now been given species status and is no longer considered to be a race of the Banded Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus cinctus).

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Banded Fruit-Dove is available HERE .

Black-banded Fruit-Doves endemic to the Arnhem Land Plateau in the interior of the Top End of the NT, with a limited range extending from Kakadu NP to West Arnhemland.

Black-banded Fruit-Doves specialize in living along sandstone escarpments, searching for fruit, in particular native figs, in monsoonal forest and riparian vegetation along creek beds.

M. Eaton found Black-banded Fruit-Doves at Nourlangie, Kakadu NP, NT, in July 2020, and again in June 2023.

P. Brown reports spotting a Black-banded Fruit-Dove at Ubirr, Kakadu NP, NT, in July 2020.