Ptilinopus pulchellus
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The beautiful fruit dove (Ptilinopus pulchellus), also known as the rose-fronted pigeon or crimson-capped fruit dove, is a small, approximately 19 cm (7+1⁄2 in) long, mainly green fruit dove. It has a red crown, whitish throat, a greenish-yellow bill and purplish-red feet. It has a blue-grey breast and yellowish orange belly, with a reddish purple patch in between. Both sexes are similar.
The beautiful fruit dove is distributed in rainforests of New Guinea and the islands of Batanta, Waigeo, Salawati and Misool in West Papua, Indonesia, primarily in flat terrain. The female usually lays a single white egg.
Its diet consists mainly of various fruits from trees, palms and vines. In the Port Moresby area, birds were found to eat a mixed diet in May. Large Tristiropsis canarioides fruit were taken when available, but the species gets displaced from fruiting trees by larger pigeons such as the collared imperial pigeon (Ducula mullerii). Small Endiandra sp. fruit were very often eaten, but made up only a small quantity of food volume. Other food were Gymnacranthera paniculata and small quantities of Polyalthia sp., Livistona palm fruit, and occasionally pepper (Piper) berries. Despite their small size, they are able to swallow fruits of 5 cm³ volume, which would translate into a diameter of about 2 cm in spherical fruit. (Frith et al. 1976)
Widespread and common throughout its large range, the beautiful fruit dove is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raja Ampat | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | California Academy of Sciences | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Walsrode World Bird Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Phoenix Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Louisville Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Woodland Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Oregon Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Memphis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Akron Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | Tiergarten Straubing | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Beautiful Fruit-Dove sighting in Raja Ampat on a given day, based on 142 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 87th most-seen of the 200 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Beautiful Fruit-Dove in Raja Ampat on a given day, against under 5% in January and June, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Beautiful Fruit-Dove sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Raja Ampat, in our data
Raja Ampat is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Beautiful Fruit-Dove sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Ptilinopus
The closest relatives of the Beautiful Fruit-Dove that you can see in Raja Ampat (genus Ptilinopus, Typical Fruit Doves) are Claret-breasted Fruit-Dove (about 40%), Wompoo Fruit Dove (about 20%) and White-breasted Fruit-Dove (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Beautiful Fruit-Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Raja Ampat (142 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
