These are found in northern and eastern Australia, tropical and sub-tropical parts of the Indian Subcontinent and east through Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. They live in rainforest and similar dense wet woodlands, mangroves and coastal heaths as well as farms and gardens bordering these areas.
They eat the seeds and fruits of a wide variety of plants and are often seen searching for fallen fruit on the ground, either singly, in pairs or in small groups, they are quite terrestrial and spend little time in trees except when roosting.
The male has a white patch on the edge of the shoulders and a grey crown, which the female lacks, like many of our doves and pigeons they have a persistent courtship ritual which involves the male giving deep bows and lifting his tail and cooing loudly. Breeding tends to occur in Australia in spring or early summer in southeastern Australia and late in the dry season in northern Australia. The female lays two eggs in a nest of twigs a few metres above the ground in a tree, both sexes look after the eggs: the female at night and the male during the day.