New Imperial Pigeon Species Identified on Tawi-Tawi Island in the Philippines

A previously unrecognized fruit-eating imperial pigeon species from Tawi-Tawi Island in the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines has been identified by Dr. Matthew Halley of the Delaware Museum of Natural Science.

A new imperial pigeon from the Sulu Archipelago

Ducula is a genus of generally large, heavy-bodied pigeons in the family Columbidae.

Commonly known as imperial pigeons, these birds live in the canopies of rainforests across the Indo-Pacific region. They can reach 35–45 cm (14–18 inches) in length.

Imperial pigeons feed mainly on fruit and are thought to play an important role as seed dispersers in tropical forests.

“Modern checklists recognize 42 species in this genus,” Dr. Halley wrote in a paper published in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club.

“This paper is about a little-known group, or putative clade, of four species that inhabit the Philippines and Sulawesi, Indonesia, on opposite sides of the Wallace Line.”

The newly recognized pigeon is endemic to Tawi-Tawi Island in the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines. It has been named the Tawi-Tawi Imperial Pigeon.

Distinctive white throat and call

The Tawi-Tawi Imperial Pigeon has a white throat, unlike the widespread brown throat of the closely related Ducula poliocephala, or Pink-bellied Imperial Pigeon, which is found throughout the Philippines.

The birds also have distinctive calls. According to Dr. Halley, vocal differences provide a second important clue that the isolated Tawi-Tawi population represents a separate species.

“Since the late 19th century, isolated populations of Ducula poliocephala on Tawi-Tawi Island in the Sulu Archipelago of the Philippines have been considered phenotypically indistinguishable from other populations of Ducula poliocephala. However, this hypothesis has clearly not been critically examined,” Dr. Halley wrote.

Only three specimens are known

Only three specimens of the newly recognized species are held in scientific collections, and no photographs of living birds are known to exist.

Two specimens were collected during the Menage Expedition in 1891 and are now housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

The third specimen was collected by Filipino ornithologist Dioscoro S. Rabor in 1971 and is preserved at the Delaware Museum of Natural Science.

Conservation concerns for the Tawi-Tawi Imperial Pigeon

Dr. Halley said the population of the Tawi-Tawi Imperial Pigeon is likely to be considerably smaller than those of its mainland relatives. The species will probably meet the criteria for a threatened conservation status when it is formally assessed.

“Ducula poliocephala are rare on almost all the islands they inhabit, and their global population is estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 individuals, but is declining due to deforestation and hunting pressure,” he wrote.

“The Tawi-Tawi population is restricted to a declining habitat, dipterocarp forest, on a single island, so its population should be much smaller.”

_____

Matthew R. Halley et al. 2026. A new species of imperial pigeon (Columbidae: Ducula) from Tawi-Tawi, Philippines. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 146 (3): 295–310. DOI: 10.25226/bboc.v146i3.2026.a7.