THINK OF A pigeon, and you probably imagine nondescript gray birds that poop all over park benches. But the Wompoo Pigeon is no such thing. Standing more than a foot high, it sports a purple throat, yellow belly and emerald wings streaked with gold. “It’s hard to comprehend how stunning they are,” says photographer Leila Jeffreys. Three years ago, Jeffreys saw a Wompoo foraging for berries in the forest near Byron Bay, Australia; its brilliant plumage blew her away and inspired her portrait series Ornithurae. It spotlights 15 surprisingly colorful (or otherwise fabulous) members of the Columbidae bird family, which includes pigeons and doves, proving they're not all just winged rats. “They are more than just the gray pigeon—more formally called a rock dove—that most people know,” she says.via