Wildlife Watching Wednesday: The Caribbean White-Crowned Pigeon

By: Tom Berg

Almost everyone has seen a pigeon.  People who live in the city often see them in parks or around buildings, while those living in the country can see them in and around barns and grain silos.  Those pigeons are rock pigeons – also called feral pigeons or domestic pigeons.  But what about the White-Crowned Pigeon?  Unless you live in Florida, you have probably never seen one.

White-crowned pigeons are native to the Caribbean, but they are also found in the Florida Keys and some other areas in far southern Florida.  These handsome birds are just slightly larger than a normal rock pigeon, with a wingspan of almost 24 inches.  Their feathers are very dark gray all over, with a bright white cap on top of their heads (thus the name white-crowned).  Their eyes are yellow and their feet are red.

The white-crowned pigeon can be seen on many of the small mangrove islands throughout the Florida Keys, but they are somewhat shy and will often fly to some of the interior trees of the island where they are difficult to see if boats get too close.  They will nest on these small islands, especially if no predators (like raccoons) are present.  Luckily for them, many of these tiny mangrove islands are too far from the mainland for raccoons to get to them.

Although some species of mangrove trees do produce seeds and small fruits, white-crowned pigeons prefer to eat the fruits and berries of other tropical fruit trees.  The birds in the Keys often fly to mainland Florida or the upper Keys every day in search of fruit, and these long flights can be 25-30 miles each way.  Favorite foods include figs, blolly berries, cocoplum fruits, royal palm fruits, gumbo-limbo berries, ironwood fruits and poisonwood fruit.  They also sometimes eat the flowers from these same trees, and occasionally supplement their fruit diet with snails and flying insects.

During the winter, white-crowned pigeons sometimes leave the Florida Keys and head for the Bahamas and other warmer islands.  They can also be found along the Caribbean coasts of Central America and southeastern Mexico.  They are fairly nomadic throughout the year, congregating in trees wherever there is ripe or ripening fruit.

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