Brown Cuckoo-Doves used to be known simply as Brown Pigeons and colloquially, still are. They live in and around the rainforests of the east coast from Cape York south to Mallacoota in Victoria. When in the rainforest itself, they do feed on a variety of fruits of native trees and shrubs, but their preferred habitat is the shrubby zone around the edges of the forest and along the creeks. There, a variety of introduced weeds usually grow in profusion and provide a great choice of food at the right time of year - inkweed, wild rasberry, lantana and wild tobacco to name a few.

Brown Cuckoo-Doves are fairly sedentary and occur as pairs when breeding or at other times of year may form groups of up to a dozen or so at a food source, but unlike other pigeons they do not form large flocks or travel high in the sky.