Cream-breasted fruit dove

Cream-breasted fruit dove
Cream-breasted Fruit Dove merilli seen in the wild in South Sierra Madre.
A stamp of the merilli sub-species
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Ptilinopus
Species:
P. merrilli
Binomial name
Ptilinopus merrilli
(McGregor, 1916)
Synonyms

Cream-bellied Fruit Dove

The cream-breasted fruit dove (Ptilinopus merrilli) or cream-bellied fruit dove is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is a large and primarily greenish dove with a distinctive red wing patch and cream coloured breast which it was named after. It is endemic to the Philippines found only on the islands of Luzon, Catanduanes and Polillo Islands. Its natural habitat is tropical moist lowland to montane forests of up to 1,300 masl. It is threatened by habitat loss, and trapping for the pet trade.

It is illegal to hunt, capture or keep cream-breasted fruit-doves under Philippine Law RA 9147.