Spice imperial pigeon
The spice imperial pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Indonesia, where it occurs in the eastern Moluccas and the Raja Ampat Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.Taxonomy
The spice imperial pigeon was formally described in 1786 by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli and given the binomial name Columba myristicivora. The specific epithet myristicivora combines the botanical genus name Myristica that contains the nutmeg, with the Latin -vorus meaning "eating". The type locality is New Guinea. This species is now placed in the genus Ducula that was introduced by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1836.
Two subspecies are recognised:
The subspecies D. m. geelvinkiana is sometimes treated as a distinct species, the Geelvink imperial pigeon.
