After yesterday’s soul-searching, let’s take a moment to rest and renew our spirits…with a beautiful bright orange-gold dove from Fiji. This is the orange fruit dove (Ptilinopus victor) also known as the flame dove—a lovely small short-tailed dove which lives in the paradisiacal rainforests of Fiji where it eats an omnivorous diet of fruit, larvae, insects, and small arthropods and mollusks. The male birds (pictured here) have bright orange body feathers and shiny olive green heads (AND blue green legs, skin. and beaks). The females are olive colored and don’t call so much attention to themselves.
I wonder what it would be like if, through some bizarre fluke, rock pigeons (aka pigeons) only lived on a few small islands in Fiji and the orange fruit dove was found in cities everywhere. Would we be oohing and ahing at the rock pigeons subtle grays with iridescent sheen and dismissively wave off the flame pigeons gorgeous orange as vulgar?
ferrebeekeeper 
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June 13, 2017 at 11:58 PM
A Quiver of Quotes
The blue feet and greenish beak to go with such a body—what a combination! You’re right about the common pigeons: they too are a wonder. Most creatures are, we just need to remember that 🙂
June 14, 2017 at 11:16 PM
Dan Capuzzi
I think we’d get as tired of these things as we do roses or daises. Where I live we are surrounded by wild parrots, mad humming birds and proud falcons…don’t get sick of any of them. Maybe the parrots…they sound like sneaky brakes amplified through a malcontented septuagenarian.