Brown Cuckoo-dove (female)

Description:

My first encounter with this species. An Australian native, the Brown Cuckoo-dove is a large brown pigeon of rainforests, with a very long, tapering tail. There is a pale streak below the blue-grey eye and a red eye-ring. The female has a brighter chestnut cap and a scaly pattern on the breast. The legs and feet are red. They feed on fruit, berries and seeds from a variety of rainforest trees, shrubs and vines. Here's a good link that shows the beautiful facial features of this species: http://www.birdphotos.com.au/Brown%20cuc...

Habitat:

Found in rainforests and wet sclerophyll forest, particularly at the forest edges, along creeks and rivers, as well as regrowth along roads and clearings, scrub, and in weedy areas where plants like lantana (Lantana camara) are prevalent. There's plenty of that around the reservoir and feeder creeks. Gold Creek Reservoir and surrounding bushland fits this description perfectly. I spotted this bird in open forest, but large areas of dense rainforest are present all around the reservoir.

Notes:

Originally known as the Slender-billed Cuckoo-dove, this species was distributed around eastern Australia and several SE Asian countries. However, in 2016, it was split into the following species: (1) Brown Cuckoo-dove (Macropygia phasianella) of eastern Australia. (2) Amboyna Cuckoo-dove (Macropygia amboinensis) of eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. (3) Sultan's Cuckoo-dove (Macropygia doreya) of Sulawesi and the northern Moluccas.