Kaia Angele
The Wompoo Fruit-Dove is identified by its large size, rich purple throat, chest and upper belly, and yellow lower belly. February is usually the last month of its breeding season and it occurs in, or near rainforest, low elevation moist eucalypt forest and brush box forests.
The wompoo has mostly green underparts, with a paler grey head and a conspicuous yellow wing-bar. It is perhaps the most beautiful of all the doves found in Australia, and the plumage of both males and females is similar.
The call of the wompoo is a deep resonant “wollack-a-woo” and, occasionally, a more abrupt “boo”.
Wompoo Fruit-Doves feed off fruit-bearing trees in rainforests such as figs. They can eat large fruits whole and are able to acrobatically collect fruit from trees and vines. The birds are hard to see when feeding, and are best located by their calls or the sound of falling fruit.
The breeding season of the Wompoo Fruit-Dove is from July to February each year. Both males and females share the construction of the twig nest, which may be placed quite low down in a tree.
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