“Don’t even think about it,” I imagined this dove saying to me as if I might be contemplating stealing his prospective mate. He had leaned forward, puffing out his chest and body feathers to make himself look grand. His bluish-black bill was tucked on his chest, his irises had taken on an intense yellow sheen, and both eyes glared at me in defiance. Even his legs and feet seemed to have become a more brilliant red-pink in tone. A soft coo came from him.
I was standing a long way away, looking through my 16-power telephoto lens, so I knew he really wasn’t doing this to me. This Brown Cuckoo-Dove was courting this female while also telling other nearby males that she was his date. She sat just in front of him, looking straight ahead and not at him.
These doves have very long and robust tails; their name, “cuckoo,” comes from their slender body and long tails resembling cuckoos. We’d been watching this species and several other birds feed on fruits in the forest canopy. The female had flown down to the gutter, probably for a drink, and the male had quickly followed. When they are in the egg-laying stage, the male will closely guard the female and court her. We were benefiting by seeing him whisper sweet things in her ear.
A large fig tree was full of small purple fruit, and numerous birds had been picking fruit and then dashing on to someplace else. Most digest the pulp and either regurgitate the seed or pass it through their digestive system unharmed. In the process, they disperse the plant’s seeds to new places. Seed dispersal is a critical ecological process and essential for restoring these tropical forests. Several Brown Cuckoo-Doves fed with the other birds. We probably spent an hour or more standing a hundred feet from this tree, mesmerized by the feeding aggregation.
