New Zealand Pigeon

The New Zealand Pigeon is traditionally a forest dweller, but is sometimes seen in city parks and gardens. Because it has a distendible gape, it is able to swallow large fruits whole. This combines to make the pigeon perpetuate its own food species. The Miro, Matai, Karaka, Tawa and Taraire trees are almost totally dependent on the pigeon for dispersal.
They breed usually between October and January, and their nest is a shallow platform of intertwined twigs. The female lays one smooth, white oval egg, and it is incubated over a period of about 30 days by both parents. Initially, the chick is fed on a creamy protein-rich liquid known as 'pigeon milk' which the parent secretes from the walls of the crop. This is gradually replaced by regurgitated fruit. The chick places its bill insi... read morede the parent's bill, and the birds sway and bob their heads for around seven seconds. It's about 45 days before the young pigeon fledges. The New Zealand pigeon feeds and roosts alone, devoting only about a quarter of its daylight hours to feeding, which is extraordinarily low for this herbivorous bird. When roosting or resting during the day the New Zealand pigeon draws in its head and puffs out its feathers a little.