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

Justification of Red List category
This species is classified as Near Threatened because although it has quite a wide range, it is restricted to low-lying areas where habitat degradation is most intense. Together with hunting pressure, this is thought to be causing a moderately rapid population reduction.

Population justification
The global population of the White-crowned Pigeon is currently estimated at 550,000 mature individuals (Partners in Flight 2019).

Trend justification
The population is suspected to be in decline overall owing to ongoing habitat degradation and unsustainable levels of hunting, although the small population in the USA is increasing (based on Breeding Bird Survey and/or Christmas Bird Count data: Butcher and Niven 2007). Populations in the Cayman Islands are fluctuating corresponding to rainfall and food availability with the latest assessment showing 2,650 birds (SE 942) in Grand Cayman, March 2018 and 1,274 birds (SE 474) in Cayman Brac, March 2019 (Haakonsson 2019). Forest loss is currently estimated at ~3% within the species's range (Tracewski et al. 2016).

Patagioenas leucocephala is found primarily in the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica and Antigua. It breeds in smaller numbers in Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands (to USA), the Virgin Islands (to UK), San Andres (Colombia), Isla de Providencia and the Corn Islands (Nicaragua), Cayman Islands, Anguilla (to UK), St Barthelemy (to France), and more rarely on St Martin and Guadeloupe (to France) (Bancroft and Bowman 2001). Populations extend west along the Caribbean coasts of Yucatan Mexico, Belize, Honduras and north-west Panama. It reaches the USA only in the Florida Keys and the southern tip of mainland Florida (del Hoyo et al. 1997, Bancroft and Bowman 2001).

In Florida, the Bahamas, the coastal Yucatan islets and the Lesser Antilles it primarily requires isolated offshore mangrove islets with limited disturbance for breeding although semi-deciduous and gallery forests may also be used (Acosta and Mugica 2019). For feeding it flies to humid evergreen or semi-deciduous hardwood forests on adjacent mainland areas (Bancroft and Bowman 2001, Gibbs et al. 2001). Elsewhere it generally occupies lower-lying forest habitats (Gibbs et al. 2001). It has also been recently noted to occur in suburban environments throughout Miami-Dade County, USA, suggesting an expansion in its typically occupied habitat in recent years (Diamond et al. 2016).

Degradation of foraging habitat is a threat to this species (del Hoyo et al. 1997). In Florida removal of poisonwood Metopium toxiferum, which can cause severe human dermatitis, affects the species as it feeds on the poisonwood's fruit (Bancroft and Bowman 2001, Gibbs et al. 2001). In Cayman a main food source, the red birch Bursera simaruba, is under threat from the Croton scale Phalacrococcus howertoni. P. leucocephala is an important game species through much of its range, and although hunting regulations in the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands have been changed, illegal hunting seems to be a threat (Bancroft and Bowman 2001). Populations decreased sharply in Puerto Rico between 2008-2014 as as legal hunting increased and such declines are suspected to be amplified by an increase in illegal hunting from 2015 onwards (Rivera-Milán et al. 2016). Collision with man-made objects is a major source of mortality in Florida, and pesticide use and human impact may also have detrimental effects (Bancroft and Bowman 2001).

Conservation Actions Underway
Listed on Annex III of the SPAW Protocol (2015). Removed from the game bird list in the Cayman Islands in 2014 (CI Gov. 2014) and surveyed annually.

Conservation Actions Proposed
Protect important breeding islets. Ensure protection of low-lying forests on larger islands where the species forages. Discourage removal of poisonwood where possible in Florida. Enforce hunting laws. Take measures to reduce collision with man-made objects. Educational programs that encourage people to plant native, fruit-producing trees in the Florida Keys should be enacted. Investigate the effects of pesticide use on the species. Monitor key populations throughout the species range.

Text account compilers
Wheatley, H., Everest, J.

Contributors
Benstead, P., Butcher, G., Capper, D., Haakonsson, J. E., Harding, M., Maisels, F., Rosenberg, K., Sharpe, C.J. & Wells, J.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: White-crowned Pigeon Patagioenas leucocephala. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/white-crowned-pigeon-patagioenas-leucocephala on 19/12/2024.
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 19/12/2024.