Short-billed Pigeon

How to find it

Start by listening, because the far-carrying song is the best clue to where the bird is. Then scan the forest canopy, forest edges and clearings, where it is often seen in pairs in the treetops. It usually perches and sings from the top of a tree, so look up before you look down. Check low, tangled clearings nearby, since it often drops in there to feed. Unpaved roads and sandy creek beds are worth a look too, as it may land there for grit or small invertebrates.

How to recognise it

This is a fairly large, plain pigeon. Adults measure about 26 to 31 cm across the species' range.

Look for these marks:

Mostly wine-purple plumage, browner on the belly.

Olive-brown on the back.

A black bill and a black cere.

Blackish tail and flight feathers.

Purple-red legs.

A pink to wine-coloured eye with red eyelids.

Females tend to look duller than males. The very short bill shows even in enlarged photos. These details describe the species across its whole range, so treat them as a guide to what to look for.

What it sounds like

Recording: Tommy Andriollo, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It usually lives in pairs all year, and a pair often sits and sings from the treetops. It feeds mainly on fruit taken from the middle and upper levels of trees. It sometimes comes to the ground for berries and small invertebrates.

It often drops into low, tangled clearings near its singing perch to feed. It may also land on unpaved roads or sandy creek beds to pick up grit or small invertebrates.

The nest is a twig platform 5 to 30 m up in a tree or vines, holding one white egg.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is mostly a bird of humid lowland forest. It is absent from the dry northwest on the Pacific side.

Records go up to about 1100 m on the Caribbean slope and about 1450 m on the Pacific slope, and some birds move up and down slope seasonally.

It lives in the forest canopy, at forest edges and in clearings. Records come from Tortuguero National Park in Limón, Carara National Park in Puntarenas, the Caribbean slope of Heredia and the Monteverde cloud forest.

When to see it

In Costa Rica the breeding season runs from March to August. One bird was photographed in Tortuguero National Park in April 2017.

Similar birds

The very similar Ruddy Pigeon replaces it at higher altitudes in southern Central America. The Short-billed Pigeon's song is slower and more complex, which separates the two. On the Pacific slope, recordists have noted the two species in an apparent territorial dispute, so they meet and overlap there.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Paloma Piquicorta, Paloma Morada, Morada or Dos tontos son. Spanish sources elsewhere also use paloma de pico corto, paloma piquinegra and paloma triste.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list gives it as a resident in Costa Rica, and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

Distant birds are common, so photos are often heavily cropped. The very short bill shows even in enlarged images, which helps with identification afterwards.