• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Previously treated as a subspecies of D. aenea but split following Rasmussen & Anderton (2005) and Collar et al. (2020). Monotypic.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2021. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Near Threatened	B1b(v)
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	12,800 km2	good
Area of Occupancy (breeding/resident)	2,340 km2	poor
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	inferred	-
Generation length	6.8 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	2-13,2	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: It is common in forested areas throughout the Andaman Islands, and is still frequently encountered in the Nicobar Islands. On Car Nicobar the species has suffered a rapid decline attributed to high rates of hunting (Sankaran 1998) and the species now appears to be infrequent or rare on the island (eBird 2021). Hunting is suspected to be a minor problem for the species on several other islands, but there are large protected areas on Great Nicobar and on some smaller islands such as Tillanchong the species is still said to be abundant (Sankaran 1998). Tillanchong is virtually undisturbed and protected by a strong local protection system. Rates of deforestation within the range have been low since the significant damage caused by a tsunami in 2004. Tree cover loss between 2000 and  2020 has been estimated from satellite imagery to be 2.5% (Global Forest Watch 2021), which is approximately equivalent to three generations (20.8 years). The observation that the species also uses areas of tree crops indicates that these levels may not necessarily lead to population impacts, however it has been reported that abundance is much lower than in the past (Kirwan et al. 2020).

Trend justification: The population is inferred to be declining due to hunting on Car Nicobar (Sankaran 1998) and possibly elsewhere in the range. While parts of the range and population are secure and assumed to be stable, on Car Nicobar the population is reported to have suffered a rapid decline and is now infrequently recorded (eBird 2021).

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
India	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	marginal	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Altitude	0 - 600 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Rapid Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Reduced reproductive success, Species mortality

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Nicobar Imperial-pigeon Ducula nicobarica. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/nicobar-imperial-pigeon-ducula-nicobarica on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.