Silvery Wood-pigeon

This species was recorded during the late 19th and early 20th century from offshore islands of the Natuna Sea (west of Borneo) and west of Sumatra, Indonesia, and on the adjacent mainland. The oldest record is that of a specimen supposedly taken near Pontianak before 1850. Verifiable records exist from Burong Island, Sarawak (1899), Saya in the Lingga Islands (same year), Simeulue (e.g. Teluk Dalam and Teluk Labuan Bajau, 1901), South Pagai (1902) and Sipura in the Mentawai Islands, the Riau Islands (several times), Tuangku Airdingin (1913), Jemaja Andriabu in the Anamba Islands (1925), the North Natuna Islands (1928), and in Sumatra's Jambi and possibly South Sumatra provinces. Locations recorded earlier included Bintan in the Riau Islands (June 1930) and Pulau Gurungan Besar in the Karimata islands (March 1931) and (unconfirmed, before 1937) from Pulau Jarak in the Straits of Malacca. The species was rediscovered by a photograph - "2008 one individual was photographed between the islets of Mastokut Island and Simaimu Islands, off the southern tip of Siberut in the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, confirming that the species survives in the wild." Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club Vol. 129, (September) 2009. LEE, M. T., DONG, D. L. & ONG, T. P. A photographic record of Silvery Pigeon Columba Argentina from the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia, with notes on identification, distribution and conservation

This species has been classified as Critically Endangered (D1) by BirdLife International, translating into an estimated population of less than fifty mature individuals. This is based on a lack of confirmed sightings, however, and thus the species may actually be more common and simply not identified due to its resemblance with the pied imperial pigeon. The reasons for the bird's apparent decline are not well known. While deforestation, especially the removal of mangrove forests, certainly adversely affects this bird, it is not known to have started on a massive scale at such an early date. Similarly, introduction of alien predators (like cats that become feral) will jeopardize breeding on offshore islets, but this is also not believed to have been significant at the time the records ceased. At any rate, the species is not found anymore on Burong, the Mentawi and the Riau Islands today, and likely only occurs on Siberut, Simeulue, and some of the surrounding islets. There are some 1980s and 1990s records, supposedly of large numbers of individuals, from Padang-Sugihan Wildlife Reserve and Sembilang River in South Sumatra, and Berbak National Park in Jambi province. It is conjectured that the bird may exist, possibly in considerable numbers, in South Sumatra, especially the Banyuasin peninsula, or Padang-Sugihan Wildlife Reserve. None of these records has been verified, however, and the species was never considered to be particularly numerous, especially when compared to the PIP. Most recently, the silvery pigeon was believed to have been seen on Pulau Talang Besar, Talang Talang Islands (part of Talang-Satang National Park), in 2001 (Wilson, 2004). Butchart et al. (2006) also mention an unconfirmed record in 2002. In 2011 individuals observed for the first time at Tanahbala in the Batu Islands were also associating with Pied and Green Imperial Pigeons. In 2016, a zoo in Nias discovered two silvery pigeons in captivity, when they were performing inventory.