Description:

A fairly large, mostly dark slaty woodpigeon with a paler head. Speckled underparts, and white spotting on wing-coverts. Male has maroon mantle and maroon on underparts, replaced by grey on female. In flight, from below, shows dark grey undertail-coverts and underside to tail.

Distribution:

Rare resident limited to the lower valleys of Astore district, neighboring Kashmir. Prefers tall evergreen and semi-evergreen hill forests of oak and moderate undergrowth with rocky faces, within altitude range of 1800-4000m.

Behavior:

Feeds in pairs, trios or flocks. Mostly arboreal and frugivorous spending majority of its time in the trees, but also takes herbs, seeds and cereals on the ground. Much of the diet consists of acorns, drupes and other fruits; in the Himalayas feeds on acorns of brown oak and figs.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Speckled Wood-Pigeon in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Speckled Wood-Pigeon

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.