Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/White-headed fruit dove/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Gog the Mild via FACBot (talk) 15 April 2022 [1].

White-headed fruit dove

Nominator(s): AryKun (talk) 08:50, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Another species of pigeon, this time endemic to the Solomon Islands. As you'd expect, the fact that it's endemic to the Solomon Islands means that little is known about it. No free-license photos either, but there is a nice illustration. AryKun (talk) 08:50, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Image review—pass

File:Ptilinopus eugeniae map.svg appears to use the outlines of another map File:Solomon Islands adm location map.svg, with slightly different licenses but this seems to be ok per the Creative Commons license compatibility (t · c) buidhe 09:05, 8 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Eviolite

Here's my set of comments (with the caveat that I am not too familiar with biology):

Seems comprehensive, based on various searches on Google Scholar and that the format has been used on other similar FAs.
"lowland, hill, and ridge forest" - this wording confuses me a bit, are "lowland", "hill", and "ridge" all modifying the word "forest"?
Yes.
Based on the source, it looks like Gray described it as in the genus Ptilonopus (with an o after the l) - they are likely just alternate spellings, but would still like this cleared up as Ptilinopus does not mention this spelling (or Ptilopus, which the catalogue calls it) at all
Yeah, Ptilonopus and Ptilopus are misspellings of Ptilinopus.
Also in the catalog, it seems there's something from 1855? Though I can't comprehend the string of abbreviations there, so maybe it's irrelevant.
It's Iotreron sp., indicating that someone collected a specimen of this species, identified it as an Iotreron, and that it was subsequently identified as this species after Gould's description.
"White-headed fruit dove is the official common name" - "White-headed fruit dove" (and "Eugenie's fruit dove" later on) should probably be formatted per MOS:WAW; italics makes sense since you used that earlier for the ancient Greek, but might be confusing with all the italicized scientific names. Not sure what the best way to do this is; I'm leaning towards quoting.
Added quotes around the names.
"others treat them as different species but treat P. v. vicinus and P. v. lewisii as subspecies of the white-headed fruit dove" - this is a bit confusing to me; based on the next paragraph, it seems that they reassign two of the several subspecies of P. viridus to P. eugeniae. I think this should be clarified because it was unclear to me that P. viridus had more than two subspecies.
Attempted rewording.
"white-breasted fruit dove" - presumably a typo
Fixed.
"A 2014 study of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA by Alice Cibois and colleagues" - would it be helpful to include institution/journal/something else, to have some idea about the credentials of this study (given Cibois does not have a Wikipedia article)?
There's like five different institutions between the authors and adding an institution wouldn't necessarily be helpful since these guys weren't doing it for the institution.
Not sure if "the lewisii subspecies of the claret-breasted fruit dove" is relevant here when you introduce P. v. lewisii in the paragraph before already
Removed "of the claret-breasted fruit dove".
"may either [...], or may" - either the "either" or second "may" is redundant
Removed second may.
What does "secondary forest" refer to?
Forest that's regrown after logging. Linked.
Any more details for "a juvenile was recorded in September", or is that all the source provides?
That's all the source says.
It is probably relevant to add that the population was thought to be decreasing "moderately rapid"ly in 2016 according to the IUCN Red List source (the article currently doesn't explicitly say thet the population is actually decreasing.)
Added.

That's all, a generally nice article all around. eviolite (talk) 00:12, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Eviolite, think I've addressed all your concerns. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AryKun (talk • contribs)

Thanks AryKun for the edits; happy to support. Great work! eviolite (talk) 21:02, 13 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comment (not a full source review). The Avibase site appears to be both used as a citation and itself cites this article, creating a circularity problem. Nikkimaria (talk) 03:29, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Avibase doesn't actually cite Wikipedia, it just shows a small excerpt at the top from Wikipedia, the "source" bit is just for the excerpt. The actual information on the site is by Denis Lepage and Birds Canada. AryKun (talk) 04:51, 12 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Coordinator note

This has been open for nearly four weeks and has picked up just the single general support. Unless it attracts further attention over the next three or four days I am afraid that it will be liable to be archived. Gog the Mild (talk) 17:15, 3 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from Aoba47

My knowledge on birds is rather limited so I will be approaching this article from an outsider perspective. I do love birds though so I look forward to learning more about this one in particular.

I have a question for the map image in the infobox. Would it be helpful to add a caption similar to the one used in the red panda article?
- Added.
For this part, It inhabits lowland, hill, and ridge forest, along with neighbouring agricultural areas, shouldn't it be "lowlands", "hills", and "ridge forests" since agricultural areas and foothills are presented in their plural forms? I have the same question for the "Distribution and habitat" section.
- Lowland, hill, and ridge are all modifying forest; I could change it to "lowland forest, hill forest, and ridge forest", but that's a bit repetitive.
For this part, prefer human-modified areas like secondary forest, gardens, and cocoa plantations, shouldn't it be "secondary forests"?
- Forest here is used to refer to the habitat and is used this way in the sources: eg "preference for hill forest" in the Pigeons and Doves book.
This is more of a clarification question, but is there a reason why the breeding habits of this bird is largely unknown? I'm just curious because it seems like this bird is still around and is not endangered or threatened so it would seem easy (at least to a non-expert like me) to study its breeding habits.
- Well, there aren't really all too many ornithologists in the Solomon Islands studying this stuff, so that plays a part. Additionally, passing observations like seeing a nest out on a walk only really tell you what the nest looks like and the month that breeding occurs; more in-depth information like the number of eggs and chicks, the time taken for incubation and fledging, the food they feed to chicks, etc requires someone to monitor nesting pairs from the time they lay eggs to when the chicks fledge, which is a lot of work.
I really enjoy the infobox image as I believe this kind of illustration is under-appreciated, but I am guessing that a photo of this bird is not available (i.e. one that is free use of course)? It is not an issue, but I wanted to ask to make sure.
- Nope, no free-use photos.

This was a fun read. I live in Florida so I am more used to seeing sandhill cranes and it is nice to read about something that is outside of my normal area (both in terms of my geographical area and my Wikipedia editing). My comments are primarily restricted to the prose. I have some image-adjacent questions, but since an image review was already done by an experienced editor, I did not look too hard in that area. Since I am not an expert in this field, I cannot really speak with as much confidence with the source quality and coverage, but the citations are well structured. Once my comments are addressed, I will be more than happy to support this FAC for promotion based on the prose. Aoba47 (talk) 13:39, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Aoba47, I've dealt with everything you pointed out. AryKun (talk) 09:55, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for addressing everything. I support this FAC for promotion based on the prose. Aoba47 (talk) 14:07, 8 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Drive-by comments from Morgan695

"but a juvenile was recorded in September" Missing a year
- Source doesn't give a year. A year isn't necessary either, as the point of this information is to tell what time of the year juveniles are seen, giving an idea as to when the species might breed.
  - I think you need to clarify that in the prose of the article itself, e.g. "but a 2001 survey recorded a juvenile in September, suggesting a summer breeding period" or something to that effect.
    - But the source doesn't mention that, so it would be OR.
At just 1106 words of readable prose, this article seems relatively short. While length is not always an indicator of quality or comprehensiveness, a cursory glance at other bird-related featured articles reveals that most bird FAs tend to be double or even triple that length. I don't doubt your claim that this is a topic with limited sources, but from the perspective of a lay reader it just seems somewhat underwritten. Morgan695 (talk) 19:59, 4 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
- Unfortunately, nothing more is known about the species. Most of the longer bird FAs are about North American, European, or Australian birds, because these are very well-studied regions. Articles about S American, African, Asian, and Pacific birds tend to be under 2000 words at the most if their biology is relatively well-known, which it isn't here.

Funk

Looks like this one needs one more review, so I'll have a look soon. FunkMonk (talk) 14:49, 10 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
"Range of the white-headed fruit dove" Could this caption state the location?
- Done. AryKun (talk) 02:49, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  Link the name in the caption? FunkMonk (talk) 20:17, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
  Done.
"due to its small range and population" Any population estimates?
No.
Any photo of its habitat that could be shown for colour?
Not really, no decent photos of forest or such from the islands it inhabits. The best I found was File:Kirakira River and Beach.JPG and Algae Rock at Kirakira Beach.JPG, but those aren't really representative since this is a non-coastal species.
"The white-headed fruit dove was originally described as Iotreron eugeniae" Was this a monotypic genus? In which case it should be mentioned an redirected here, and explaine don what grounds it was moved to another genus?
Not monotypic and this isn't the type species either. Gray doesn't provide a rationale for the move.
"is in honour of Eugénie de Montijo, wife of Napoleon III" Seems pretty random, do we know why?
No idea, presumably to get in her good books? All he says is "this beautiful little Pigeon, certainly the most brilliantly coloured of the entire group, has been named in honour of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress of the French", which you can't really infer a motive out of.
"The species' generic name comes from the Ancient Greek ptilon" Seems a tad bit misleading since the genus has multiple species, perhaps just say "its generic name"?
Done.
"which may either support transferring the subspecies vicinus and lewisii to the white-headed fruit dove, or have been caused by i" Should be "or may have been caused by" then?
Done.
" Some authorities have treated the two as being conspecific (of the same species), while others treat them as different species but treat P. v. vicinus and P. v. lewisii (two subspecies that are currently treated as part of the claret-breasted fruit dove) as subspecies of the white-headed fruit dove." Could we get to know who holds either view?
I can't actually find any, all the major checklists seem to keep this monotypic. I've changed from "authorities" to "authors" since that's how the original source puts it and it seems more accurate.
Perhaps terms like scapulars, coverts, etc, should have "feathers" after them, so lay readers will know what you're talking about?
Done for coverts and retrials, but scapulars is the term used, no source I've ever seen uses "scapular feathers" as an alternative.
"The yellow-bibbed fruit dove may be confused with the white-headed fruit dove" What about the closer related claret-breasted fruit dove, how are they told apart, or do their ranges not overlap?
The ranges don't seem to overlap as they inhabit different islands, but added a bit about that.
How do the eggs look?
No information about the eggs.
FunkMonk, all done. AryKun (talk) 15:43, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support - looking nice to me now. FunkMonk (talk) 17:33, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Source review

Footnote numbers refer to this version.

You're inconsistent about using publisher location: most have a location but [8] does not. Locations don't have to be included but we should be consistent.
- Added location to 8.
There's no publisher in [4], and that archive link is not working for me.
- Added publisher, removed archive link.
The archive link for [9] is not working.
- Removed archive link.

Otherwise the formatting looks good and the sources are all reliable. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:05, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Mike Christie, all done. AryKun (talk) 12:33, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
The changes look good; this is a pass. Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 12:36, 13 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Closing note: This candidate has been promoted, but there may be a delay in bot processing of the close. Please see WP:FAC/ar, and leave the {{featured article candidates}} template in place on the talk page until the bot goes through. Gog the Mild (talk) 11:19, 15 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.