Wompoo Fruit-Dove
Ptilinopus magnificus
Columbidae
One of the more spectacular species of fruit-dove in Australia, the Wompoo Fruit-Dove has largely-green upper parts, while its breast is plum-purple, and the belly and underwings are canary yellow. Despite this bright coloration, Wompoo Fruit-Doves are often overlooked as they forage on fruit among the leaves high in the canopy of tropical and subtropical rainforests. Often the first sign that they are there is the sound of fruit falling onto the forest floor below. Another tell-tale sign is their call, a distinctive ‘wompoo’, which gives the bird its name.
Description
The Wompoo Fruit-Dove is identified by its large size, rich purple throat, chest and upper belly, and yellow lower belly. It has mostly green underparts, with a paler grey head and a conspicuous yellow wing-bar. It is perhaps the most beautiful of all the doves found in Australia, and both sexes are similar in plumage. Birds from the north are smaller than those in the south. Young Wompoos are duller and greener than the adults.
Similar Species
Two other similarly coloured pigeons are the Rose-Crowned Fruit-Dove, P. regina, and the Superb Fruit-Dove, P. superbus. While both of these species are mostly green, with bright colouring around the head and neck, they are both considerably smaller, measuring around 20 cm - 24 cm.
Distribution
Australia has three discrete Wompoo Fruit-Dove populations along the east coast: from central eastern New South Wales to central eastern Queensland; north-eastern Queensland; and northern Cape York Peninsula. This species also occurs in New Guinea. The Wompoo Fruit-Dove is more common and abundant in the northern parts of its range.
Habitat
The most favoured habitat of the Wompoo Fruit-Dove is rainforest, and birds are rarely seen in other areas. The birds do not travel large distances, but move around in small, localised areas in search of fruit-bearing trees.
Feeding
Wompoo Fruit-Doves feed on a variety of rainforest fruits. The fruits are eaten whole and may be quite large in size. The birds are hard to see when feeding, and are best located by their calls or the sound of falling fruit. They may form large feeding flocks where food is plentiful, and the birds acrobatically pluck the fruit from trees and vines high up in the canopy area.
Breeding
In the north of the Wompoo Fruit-Dove's range the breeding season may vary in response to suitable weather conditions. Both sexes share the construction of the twig nest, which may be placed quite low down in a tree. A white egg is laid, and both sexes share the incubation and care of the chick. Only one chick is raised in a season, but birds may breed a second time if the first attempt fails.
The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates
This Wherigo converts your player into a virtual version of the "Reverse Cache Box" which tells you the bearing to the cache, but not the distance. You may begin your search from any spot in the world using your Smartphone or Whereigo compatible GPS to navigate to the cache.
**As the cartridge produces whole number degrees, the triangulation is not accurate from long distances especially if the 2 readings are taken close together producing an acute angle at intersection, so don't be disheartened by a GZ that seems wrong, go near there and take more readings.**
The cartridge was created by day1976 and is available to download from the wherigo website. day1976's Open Source Reverse Wherigo .
Start up the player, find and load the cartridge. > NewGame > Find a Geocache > Answer > Enter First Code > xxxxx > Answer > Enter Second Code > xxxxx > Answer > The bearing to this Geocache is xxx degrees. This bearing is from where you are standing. It is now up to you how many times you relocate and obtain different bearings so as to triangulate the cache. The ultimate goal would be to find the cache with just one bearing reading, but for most, it would need a minimum of two bearings. Bearings are with respect to True North, so If using an OS map, allowances will have to be made, as Grid North, Magnetic North, and True North are all different!
To begin, you will have to type these two codes into your player when prompted:
jm38a
bdhus
It is suggested that you take the code with you on your journey. It will be needed if it becomes necessary to restart your player for any reason.
Have Fun!
How to download the Whereigo Cartridge
You may begin your search from any spot in the world using a Whereigo compatible GPS unit or phone app.
Link to day1976's Open Source Reverse Wherigo cartridge.
Log into wherigo.com using your geocaching.com player name and password. The cartridge type used on phone apps is the Pocket PC Device.