Black-naped Pheasant Pigeon
(Otidiphaps nobilis insularis)
There are four subspecies of Pheasant Pigeon. These large, colorful, ground-dwelling subspecies in the pigeon family fill the niche occupied by pheasants, which are absent from New Guinea. While all four are endemic to New Guinea, the Black-naped is the rarest, likely due to limited remaining habitat on Fergusson Island which is located off the southeast tip of New Guinea, the only place it is known to have lived.
The Black-naped Pheasant Pigeon proved a thrilling sight after 126 years!
Lost for 126 years, the Black-naped Pheasant Pigeon was until recently only known to Western science from three specimens collected in the late 1800s. That changed dramatically in September of 2022 when a trail camera, set by Doka Nason and Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Jordan Boersma under the guidance of a local hunter, caught thrilling images of a single bird calmly walking under a canopy of ferns.
This remarkable 2022 trail camera footage proved the existence of the long-lost Black-naped Pheasant Pigeon, but how many living individuals there may be is still unknown, and the species is likely still critically endangered.
The Critical Role of Indigenous Knowledge
Indigenous communities on Fergusson Island call the Black-naped Pheasant Pigeon by the name Auwo, given for the sound of its mournful call: “aaauu-wooooh”. These communities share both a legend about the origin of Auwo–originally a woman forsaken by her village–and a chant invoking the species employed by men to charm a prospective wife. Most of the local people interviewed as part of Nason and Boersma’s successful 2022 expedition were either unfamiliar with Auwo or had not encountered the species for several decades. Sadly, local lack of familiarity with the Black-naped Pheasant Pigeon, ongoing habitat loss to logging, and a follow-up 2025 expedition to Fergusson by Nason and Boersma that failed to document the species, indicate that this critically endangered species likely remains on the brink of extinction.
Doka Nason, shown in the video below, couldn’t believe he was seeing the first photographs of what felt like a mythical creature, a species lost to Western science for 126 years.
Please note: The excitement of the moment elicited some strong language which is audible in this video.
“This is the happiest moment ever!”