Ring-Tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas caribaea): The Wood Pigeon Pretty as a Jamaican Stamp

The genus Patagioenas to which the ring-tailed pigeon belongs currently arises in the Western Hemisphere. Ornithologists conjecture as American-born the ancestors of all living doves and pigeons. They consider that the worldwide distribution of the Columbidae family expresses the emigrations of doves and pigeons from New World habitats to niches in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They do not exclude the possibility of subsequent transatlantic returns to the Americas. They hypothesize that the 17 species within Patagioenas descend from an American avian born to Eurasian-born avians returning to the New World. They offer as convincing evidence the fact that the genus has as close relatives the cuckoo dove genus Macropygia of Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vanuatu.

Scientific breakthroughs and technological advances allow ornithologists to group the ring-tailed pigeon’s genus into four groups. Membership answers to genetic, structural, and vocal criteria. Ring-tailed pigeons belong to the band-tailed group along with:
• The extinct, fossil-evidenced species P. micula;
• Two fellow living species.

The three extant species exhibit similarities in:
• Iridescent necks;
• Low, singly-emitted coos;
• Terminally-banded tails.

They feature far less diversity than:
• The Cayenne (cayennensis) group’s four species calling out double or triple coos;
• The lead-colored (plumbea) group’s four small-billed, small-sized species emitting high single coos and possessing plain plumage and rounded tails;
• The white-headed (leucocephala) group of six species sounding triple coos and showcasing iridescent necks with dark plumage, scaly looks, or white-edged outer-wing cover-feathers.

The designation ring-tailed pigeon acts as one of three main common names for the bird. Two other frequently employed, non-scientific terms are the following:

• Jamaican band-tailed pigeon;
• Ring-tailed wood pigeon.

The ringed-tail also carries the current scientific name Patagioenas caribaea. Scientists credit Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (February 16, 1727 – October 26, 1817) with the first known European attempts at official descriptions and taxonomic nomenclatures. The Leiden-born scientist gathered animal, mineral, and plant samples during an expedition ordered by Francis I (December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) for 1755 - 1759. Destinations included Central America and the West Indies. The Holy Roman Emperor intended the specimens to augment exotic and recreational wildlife collections at his Schönbrunn (“beautiful spring”) palace.

It may have been not only eminently practical but also particularly enjoyable for Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin -- entitled in 1806 -- to collect and identify fauna and flora.  The expedition resulted in lifelong respect from Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707- January 10, 1778), father of modern ecology and taxonomy. Specimens from, publications on, and drawings of coastal northern South American and insular Caribbean wildlife served to ensure the scientist’s career as:

• Botany and Chemistry Professor at the University of Vienna in 1768;
• Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences foreign member-elect in 1783.

His professional reputation was such that his son Joseph Franz Freiherr von Jacquin (February 7, 1766 – October 26, 1839) received both positions, in 1797 and 1821.

The baron must have relished listening to and writing about the calls of such melodious New World denizens as ring-tailed pigeons. He in fact passed his other great love -- for music -- to his younger children. Super-talented composer and musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) performed house concerts -- such as that launching the Kegelstatt Trio, K. 498 -- with Franziska Jacquin (1769 – 1850) as pianist and Nikolaus as flutist. He permitted two original songs to be published under Emil Gottfried Jacquin’s (1767 – 1792) name:

• Als Luise … (“As Louise…”), K. 520, for piano and voice;

• Das Traumbild (“The Dream-picture”), K. 530.

He was Franziska’s piano teacher. 

The ring-tailed pigeon's vocalizations are recognizable as guttural to the least trained of musical ears. They begin with two sounds:

• Cru-cru, followed by a descending croooo;

• U-hu, succeeded by an emphatic coooo.

They can create spectacular effects when ringed-tails communicate while clustering in large numbers. Ring-tail pigeons congregate in large flocks for:

• Feeding;

• Flying;

• Roosting.

Flocks enjoy feeding upon fruits and seeds high up in the canopy of forest edges and montane forests. They seasonally fly from higher to lower altitudes and back in pursuit of differing ripening times of cultivated and wild fruits. They nest high up in the taller trees of moist subtropical and tropical forests. Flying and roosting result in greater congregations than foraging.

Yet this same flocking and this very seasonality cause ring-tailed populations to be considered vulnerably unknown. Research disagrees on the degree of vulnerability. Researchers employ different criteria in different locales. For example, a ten-hour monitoring from 1991 furnishes hourly counts of 13 - 32. Estimated occupancy rates of one to six per 1,420-square kilometer (548.27-square mile) area inspire minimum calculated population totals between 425 and 2,5000 and upper-range projections between 8,950 and 10,000. Some specialists suggest that the total ringed-tail distribution may involve a 7,100-square kilometer (2,741.3-square mile) area. But whatever the criteria or results, experts tend to agree that the trend from the mid-19th century, throughout the 20th, and into the 21st continues toward:

• Declining ranges;

• Decreasing habitats;

• Diminished populations.   

Despite the intrusiveness of group behaviors and low-toned vocalizations, ring-tailed pigeons amaze viewers with their alternating high- and low-profile visibility. The potential for the immobile, silent ringed-tail to pass undetected exists despite the Jamaican native's medium size and showier colors. The camouflage slightly favors females and juveniles over males. The immature ringed-tail in fact gives bark-like impressions that aid in survival in the forest canopy. Juveniles have brown and grey bodies. The exception is a fruity red that fringes the non-adult's upper wings and that turns red-orange on the head and the upper body. The parents locate the nest high enough that the sight and sound of a newborn, hatchling or dlegling does not filter easily ground-ward.

Adults attain mature head-and-body lengths of 41 centimeters (41 inches). The adult male displays blue and grey coloring on the upper body. His head and lower body exhibit a pink and brown coloring. The male adult has an iridescently blue and grey hindneck. The female adult is much the same in color even though the overall impact is duller-sheened. But regardless of gender, every ring-tailed pigeon may be described as:

• Black-banded across the upper tail;

• Black-beaked;

• Pale-banded across the lower tail;

• Red-clawed;

• Red-eyed;

• Red eye-ringed.

Likewise regardless of gender, all ring-tailed pigeons recall to viewers the different-specied plain pigeon (Patagioenas inornata). Lack of tail-banding and possession of white wings nevertheless will confirm the plain pigeon's identity.

Ring-tailed pigeons commit to definite habitats. They crave:

• Humid atmospheres;

• Moist grounds;

• Undisturbed woods;

• Variable elevations.

At 328.08- to 6561.68-foot (100-2,000-meter) elevations, they find proper configurations in:

• Forested highlands;

• Limestone forests;

• Low-lying woodlands.

They in fact function nomadically between two homelands, one highland and the other lowland. Notwithstanding highland breeding spring to summer, every February to August, the elusive bird's nomadism makes detection difficult for scientists if not for:

• Agro-industrialists;

• Hunters;

• Loggers;

• Miners;

• Poachers.

Wildlife-lovers and wildlife-scientists need to find ways to study and support Jamaica's most elusive pigeon. Sustainability starts with two steps:

• Enforcing national park status to the Blue and John Crow Mountains;

• Protecting flyways between the ring-tail's highland and lowland homes. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Jamaica's Blue Mountains: Ron Knight (sussexbirder), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/9919745@N03/8082135543

band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata) in Arizona: Gary Kramer, Public Domain, via U.S. Fish and Wildlife National Digital Library @ https://digitalmedia.fws.gov/digital/collection/natdiglib/id/14070

Hietzing, 13th municipal district of Vienna, western Vienna: Gveret Tered, Public Domain (CC0 1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Schönbrunn_Palace,_Vienna.JPG

undated line engraving by Johann Conrad Krüger (1733-1791), after portrait by Josef Kreutzinger (1757-1829): CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicholas_Joseph,_Freiherr_von_Jacquin._Line_engraving_by_J._Wellcome_V0003039.jpg

c. 1780 portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce (1736-1819); Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Salzburg, northwestern Austria: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wolfgang01.jpg

Cockpit Country: northern inland Jamaica: Ron Knight from Seaford, East Sussex, United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Patagioenas_caribaea_-Cockpit_Country,_Jamaica-8.jpg

Jamaica and insert of location of Jamaica within Caribbean Sea: Nrg800, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ring-tailed_Pigeon.png

view of the Blue Mountain Range looking into St. Mary Parish from St. Andrew Parish: Wolmadrian, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_Mountains,_Jamaica.jpg

"Central Jamaica, Off main road running South from Discovery Bay. Somewhere in Cockpit Country.": Paul Morris, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bauxite_Jamaica_1984.jpg

Mine Kerb, near Lime Tree Farm, Blue Mountains: Simon J. Tonge, CC BY 3.0, via Encyclopedia of Life @ https://eol.org/pages/45509382/media (specific EOL image URL @ https://eol.org/media/8935614)

BirdLife International. (2012). "Patagoienas caribaea." IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22690281/0

BirdLife International. (2014). "Species factsheet: Ring-tailed Pigeon Patagoienas caribaea." Threatened Birds of the World. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=2483

Cheke A.S. (2005). "Naming segregates from the Columba–Streptopelia pigeons following DNA studies on phylogeny." Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 125(4):293-295 

Johnson K.P.; de Kort S.; Dinwoodey K.; Mateman A. C.; ten Cate C.; Lessells C. M.; Clayton D.H. (2001). "A molecular phylogeny of the dove genera Streptopelia and Columba." Auk 118(4): 874-878. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~kjohnson/kpj_pdfs/Auk.2001.pdf

Mahler B.; Tubaro P.L. (2001). "Relationship between song characters and morphology in New World pigeons." Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 74(4):533–539. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

Peterson A.P. (2012). "Columbiformes." Zoonomen. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.zoonomen.net/avtax/colu.html

"Pigeon de Jamaïque (Patagioenas caribaea) (Jacquin, 1784)." Avibase the world bird database managed by D. Lepage. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?avibaseid=05E3F3DF20B0A2C9

"Sandgrouse and Pigeons Order Columbiformes: Pigeons, Doves Family Columbidae." In: IOC World Bird List, version 4.1, edited by F. Fill and D. Donsker. International Ornithologists' Union, 2014. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.worldbirdnames.org/n-sandgrouse.html

Schulenberg T.S. (Ed.). (2010). "Ring-tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas caribaea)". Neotropical Birds Online. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Retrieved on February 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/portal/species/overview?p_p_spp=171061