The extremely rare Timor green pigeon has fewer than 500 individuals left in the wild, according to a recent study. Researchers say its extinction risk must be revised from endangered to critically endangered.
The fruit-eating Timor green pigeon (Treron psittaceus), known for its distinctive mango-green plumage, is “endemic to Timor, Rote and adjacent satellite islands” in eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
Once numbering in the tens of thousands, the bird’s population has suffered over recent decades. The species is currently classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List, with an estimated global population of 660-2,000 mature individuals.
However, by compiling published observations and data from field surveys conducted from 2002-2025, researchers now conservatively estimate that only 100 to 500 individuals remain globally. The species is now considered nearly extinct in Indonesia, with no records in West Timor since 2005 and none in Rote since 2009.
“While there has been loss of forest habitat on Timor and Rote islands over the past 100 years or so, hunting over recent decades is responsible for the catastrophic collapse of Timor green pigeon populations,” lead author Colin Trainor of Charles Darwin University, Australia, told Mongabay.
The bird is particularly vulnerable due to its lack of a flight response. Hunters in Lautem district in eastern Timor-Leste call the bird tule (meaning deaf) because the flock often continues to feed even after rifles are fired, allowing several birds to be shot in a single session , the authors wrote.
Jafet Potenzo Lopes, study co-author from Conservation International, told Mongabay the final stronghold for the species is in Timor-Leste’s Nino Konis Santana National Park, where the birds are increasingly restricted to the most remote lowland forests.
“I was born in Lautem District and have been working here as a conservationist for many years,” Potenzo Lopes said. “But so much has changed in that time. Ten years ago you could hike to see the Timor green pigeon, but now it only lives in the most remote areas.”
Trainor said community-based conservation actions that influence hunting behavior would be key, with an initial focus on villages in the Lautem district. “An education program and ongoing media campaign at the national level is also important.”
Potenzo Lopes said strengthening Indigenous protections could help. “In many communities across Timor-Leste, especially in Lautem, traditional Lulik practices continue to protect forests through customary rules that forbid cutting trees, hunting wildlife, or entering certain sacred areas without permission from elders,” he said.
He also argued for an increase in funding to manage Nino Konis Santana National Park. The park “currently does not have the resources to manage threatened species, though government Forest Guards are one measure the Timor-Leste government uses to try to manage illegal activities including hunting,” Potenzo Lopes said.
Banner image of a Timor green pigeon, courtesy of James Eaton (CC BY-NC-ND).