To anyone not from New Zealand this is a wood pigeon or Kereru, nothing like the average sit on a statue pigeon. They like trees not buildings and are big, gorgeous gluttons that will quite happily sit on a plum tree and stuff themselves with ripe fruit until they are so full they look drunk.
When they've eaten to bursting point and are ready to take off they drop and miraculously lift off, sometimes perilously close to the ground. I'm very fond of these big birds with small brains and huge appetites, their white apron of feathers and the iridescent green/red/blue of the rest of their plumage, and so I was very excited to have three of them fly out of a tree by the clothesline the other day, followed soon after by another three. They're usually solitary although you might see two if you're lucky so there must be some pigeon love in the air. Wish I'd had my camera and a better zoom instead of a basket of wet washing. So the rest of the day I had my camera ready but they didn't return, just this one that flew to the top of a neighbouring, very tall, tree.

xx