choiseul pigeon
microgoura meeki latin

The last unconfirmed report of a Choiseul Pigeon was in the early 1940s, and the species is considered extinct.

It is likely that the Choiseul Pigeon was a largely terrestrial species, feeding and nesting near the forest floor.

The Choiseul Pigeon was monotypic within the genus Microgoura and had no known subspecies.

Despite many searches, the Choiseul Pigeon has not been definitively reported since Meek collected the six specimens in 1904.

In 2012 the Choiseul Pigeon was commemorated on a stamp from Mozambique along with several other extinct birds.

The Choiseul Pigeon (Microgoura meeki) is an extinct species of bird in the pigeon and dove family Columbidae.

Though this species had no known close relatives, it is believed to have been closest to the Thick-billed Ground Pigeon, which has similar plumage to the Choiseul Pigeon.

Though Meek did not travel to these islands, he did search for the Choiseul Pigeon on the adjacent Bougainville Island, but did not find any evidence of its presence.

The Choiseul Pigeon was only known from the island of Choiseul in the Solomon Islands off the coast of New Guinea, to which it is usually considered to have been endemic.

Its closest living relative is believed to be the Thick-billed Ground Pigeon, and some authors have suggested that the Choiseul Pigeon may be the link between this species and the crowned pigeons.

As several ornithologists had visited Choiseul and the nearby islands prior to Meek without noting any sign of the bird's existence, it is likely that the Choiseul Pigeon was already close to extinction in 1904.

The Choiseul Pigeon was described by Lord Walter Rothschild in 1904 on the basis of six skins- three male and three female- and an egg collected by Albert Stewart Meek earlier that year.

After the bird's extinction, the indigenous people have occasionally confused the Choiseul Pigeon with the arboreal Crested Cuckoo-Dove in modern folklore, and several claims of the pigeon's continued existence turned out to be the cuckoo-dove.

Notwithstanding, it would be considered very unusual if the Choiseul Pigeon were truly endemic to Choiseul as the island hosts no other endemic species, and the pigeon was never linked ecologically with another species on the island.

After its discovery, several Western bird collections highly desired its skins; the Whitney South Seas Expedition spent three months at high expense on Choiseul with the primary objective being the acquisition of the Choiseul Pigeon.

The Choiseul Pigeon was not searched for again until briefly in 1927 and again in October 1929, when five veteran collectors belonging to the Whitney South Seas Expedition dedicated two months to searching for the pigeon in multiple locations across Choiseul without success.

It has been suggested that the Choiseul Pigeon was the link between the Thick-billed Ground Pigeon and the crowned pigeons of the genus Goura; however, other sources argue that it may not have been closely related to the crowned pigeons as its crest is dramatically different.