It is a mainly grey bird with a pinkish breast; its silvery neck patch and lack of white wing markings distinguish it from its close relative and probable ancestor, the common wood pigeon.

A scarce resident breeder in laurisilva forests, the trocaz pigeon lays one white egg in a flimsy twig nest.

The major cause of its population decline was habitat loss from forest clearance, but hunting and nest predation by introduced rats were also contributory factors.

The sexes are similar in appearance, but the juvenile has generally browner plumage, with limited or no development of the silvery neck patch.

[7] The trocaz pigeon was formally described in 1829 by Karl Heineken, a German medical doctor and ornithologist who was living on Madeira at the time.

[11] Trocaz is a variant of Portuguese torcaz, the common wood pigeon; both words are ultimately derived from the Latin torquis, a collar, and refer to the bird's coloured neck patches.

It mainly occurs on the northern slopes of the mountains, but smaller numbers are found in the south where suitable patches of laurel forest remain.

The trocaz pigeon prefers primary forests, but secondary growth is used for feeding, and agricultural land is also visited, especially at times of fruit shortage.

The displays are similar to those of the common wood pigeon; the male climbs quickly in flight, gives a loud wing-clap, and then glides down with his wings and tail spread.

The nest is a typical pigeon construction, a flimsy structure of twigs and grasses usually placed high in a tree in thick forest.

[21] However, when the fruit crop of Til and Azores Laurel is poor, large numbers of pigeons may leave the forest to feed on cabbage, flowering cherries and vine shoots.

The losses on the two islands, the only inhabited ones in the archipelago, were largely the result of deforestation for wood and to create agricultural and grazing land.

Perhaps the main limiting factor on the rate at which the pigeon increases its numbers is predation by introduced black rats on its eggs and young.

The Madeira Nature Park has a management plan for the trocaz pigeon, and it is hoped that an education campaign and the promotion of bird scarers may reduce persecution.