It is a common species of Southeast Asia, found from Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam south through to the major islands of Indonesia and the Philippines (where it is called "punay").

The species has adapted well to human changes to the environment, and can be found in crowded cities as long as fruiting trees are present.

Within that genus the species is most closely related to the similar looking orange-breasted green pigeon of India and Southeast Asia.

[4][5][6] Only the Handbook of the Birds of the World's HBW Alive lists any subspecies, with the proviso that the difference between them is in many cases clinal and further research is necessary to determine if any of them are valid.

The female is smaller overall, has a yellowish belly, throat and face, and greenish crown and back of the neck, although is otherwise similar to the male.

[7] The range of the pink-necked green pigeon extends from southern Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam south through the Malay Peninsula and across the Greater Sundas (and their surrounding islands), Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, and as far east as the Moluccas as well as the Philippines.

The survey was conducted in 1908, and at the time the pigeon was the only obligate frugivore (meaning it ate mostly fruit, as opposed to as part of a wider diet or opportunistically) that had established itself on the islands.

[11][12] Within the archipelago it was able to colonise Anak Krakatau, a volcano that emerged from the sea from the caldera in 1927, within 36 years of the new island suffering a large eruption in 1952.

[16] The pink-necked green pigeon is primarily a frugivore, taking a range of fruits, particularly figs (Ficus).

Fruit of other trees are taken as well, including Glochidion, Breynia, Vitex, Macaranga, Muntingia, Melastoma,[7] Oncosperma and Bridelia.

[7] Like other members of the genus Treron, the gizzard is muscular and contains grit, which is used to grind and digest seeds inside fruit.

[11] It is social, feeding in small groups or, where an abundant source of food is found, quite large flocks of up to 70 birds.

[11] The pink-necked pigeon has been reported being preyed upon by white-bellied sea-eagles, and peregrine falcons have been implicated in the localised extinction of the species on Anak Krakatau.

[20] In spite of suffering some hunting pressure in Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra,[7] and being targeted by the cage bird trade,[21] it remains common there and across most of its range.