Negros Bleeding-Heart Pigeon

Gallicolumba keayi

Status: Critically Endangered. Negros Bleeding Heart Pigeons are hunted for food and trapped for pet trade. They also suffer from habitat loss because the forests that they reside in have been in decline, and they require higher elevation old-growth forest. Only a small population of them still exists, and conservation groups have been trying to find suitable protected habitats for them that can remain undisturbed.

The Negros Bleeding-Heart Pigeon's song is a repeated phrase of bubbling notes, starting low and soft and increasing in speed and volume. In Philippine lore, limokon are omen birds. These omens are communications of the spirits. "Limokon" as a term is applied by the Mandaya, Bagobo, and Manobo people to refer to various wild pigeons in the Philippines. Omens in general are observed and considered, and can be taken from actions and movements of animals like birds, reptiles, and insects. They can also come from natural occurrences like earthquakes, tides, weather; or from human activities and movements. All occurrences in the physical world are consequences of the will of the unseen world. Limokons' cooing voice can warn of dangers or promise success and individuals should take heed and let their actions and decisions be influenced by these signs, for to ignore is to court failure.

In a Mandaya folktale, the limokon once spoke like men, though they were birds. A limokon laid two eggs upon different banks of a river, and from these eggs was hatched a man and woman. Though they did not at first know of each others' existence, they eventually traversed the river and came together, and their children became the Mandaya people who live along the river.

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