White-bibbed fruit-dove
Ptilinopus rivoli
Ptilin = feather pus = a foot (so named because fruit-doves have fully-feathered tarsi)
rivoli = after a French ornithologist Duc de Rivoli

Living high

The white-bibbed fruit-dove only lives in the tree canopy.

It eats many kinds of soft tree fruits which, in this high rainfall area, are always available.

There is not much salt in its food. What would its kidneys need to do?

Museums have collections of skins, bones and
eggs. How do these collections help people
and other animals?
This study skin of a white-bibbed fruit-dove was collected by the Lutheran Mission Superintendent Rev S Lehnerin Papua New Guinea about 1920, and donated to the Museum through Rev J F W Schulz, 1924.
Photo: Scott Bradley, 1996

Rain, rain, and more rain

The heavy rains help the fruit trees grow, and the bird bathes in the rain to clean its feathers.

But rain can also be a problem.

During heavy downpours the fruit-dove shelters under clumps of leaves.

Sometimes parent birds protect their eggs and infants from the rain by spreading their wings to cover their nest.

The white-bibbed fruit-dove only has one or sometimes two young in their flimsy stick nest high in the canopy. What might happen to the nest if it was a solid construction?

Reference
Beehler, B M, Pratt, T K and Zimmerman, D A. 1986. Birds of New Guinea. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

The white-bibbed fruit-dove