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

Taxonomic note

Ducula badia and D. cuprea (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as D. badia following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2024	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2014	Least Concern
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	high
Land-mass type		Average mass	486 g

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	108,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	6.99 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species apparently occurs in densities several times greater than Columba elphinstonii; a density estimate of 12.3 birds/km² was obtained in forests south of Palakkad gap in Kerala (P. Jayadevan in litt. 2014). This species is considered to have a high dependency on forest habitat, and tree cover is estimated to have declined by 6.6% within its mapped range over the past three generations (Global Forest Watch 2022, using Hansen et al. [2013] data and methods disclosed therein). It is therefore tentatively suspected that this rate of cover loss may have led to a decline of between 1-19% in the species' population size over the same time frame, with a best estimate of reduction being 5-9%.

Trend justification:   .

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
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Altitude	400 - 2000 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Nilgiri Imperial-pigeon Ducula cuprea. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/nilgiri-imperial-pigeon-ducula-cuprea 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.