It has a slow flight and spends a lot of time sitting still in the foliage of large fruiting trees, often in riverine forest on the plains.

They are frugivores, foraging in small groups in the canopy of trees but sometimes descending to the ground for seeds and fallen fruit.

The male has whitish-grey crown, purplish-maroon upperparts with faint green gloss on the neck; more strongly iridescent mantle and back; dark slate-coloured rump and uppertail-coverts; vinous-brown ear-coverts, throat and underparts[ slaty-grey undertail-coverts; and blackish tail and flight feathers.

Juveniles initially have the crown colour matching the mantle, duller wing-coverts and scapulars with rufous fringes, a much reduced gloss on the upperparts and greyer underparts.

[6] The pale-capped pigeon is very locally distributed across its broad range, which encompasses parts of northern and northeastern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

The breeding season is May to August and the flimsy platform nest is placed low down in a tree and one or rarely two eggs are laid.