The closest living relative of the famously extinct dodo has been found in a remote part of north-west Australia for the first time.

The Nicobar pigeon is a large bird considered near threatened in its typical forest habitat on isolated Southeast Asian islands.

But Aboriginal rangers in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia who have an intimate knowledge of the local plants and animals were stunned when a strange bird crossed a bush track before their eyes.

It had been just a regular day's work for the rangers, who were conserving monsoonal vine-thicket — a type of rainforest clinging to the coast of the otherwise arid West Kimberley — when the bird appeared.

"They came across this bird toddling across the road," Bardi Jawi ranger coordinator Phillip McCarthy said.

"They just pulled up and said, 'That doesn't look normal. It's a strange animal'."

The rangers were able to photograph the then unidentified bird and record details of their find.

This allowed accurate identification of the Nicobar pigeon, a plump bird at risk from hunters for food, but faring better than its larger relatives, the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire, both species which have been eaten to extinction.

Happy, healthy, and captured

After never before being seen in Australia, the Nicobar pigeon has now been seen a number of times in locations around Mr McCarthy's traditional country on the Dampier Peninsula, apparently doing well in its new home.

"Obviously it was accustomed to the environment [because] it was actually feeding off native bush seeds," Mr McCarthy said.

"We saw the animal foraging around a community house at One Arm."

This photo helped Aboriginal rangers identify the first Nicobar pigeon ever found in Australia. ( Supplied )

Around three weeks after the bird was first seen, the Indigenous rangers got an unexpectedly close look at a Nicobar pigeon when one was presented to them by a local child.

Fortunately the bird had been caught uninjured.

"Earlier this week, one of Kevin George's grandchildren actually brought it in to Kevin, brought it into the office," Mr McCarthy said.

"It was alive and very healthy.

"We did the right thing and notified the relevant agencies, notified the Department of Parks and Wildlife, and eventually [someone] came out and picked the animal up."

More than one Nicobar pigeon possible

Bardi Jawi Rangers hand the captured Nicobar pigeon to the Department of Agriculture. ( Supplied: Kimberley Land Council )

The bird is now being held in quarantine according to a statement from the WA Department of Agriculture.

"The bird is currently being flown to Perth where it will be held at quarantine facilities while future options are considered," the statement read.

But Mr McCarthy said he believed there may still be a dodo relative on the loose in the Kimberley.

"We were told by Mr Johnstone from the museum that [the captured pigeon] might be a juvenile one so to me, it actually looks like two different animals," he said.

"We are very proud to be the first mob to actually see and record this animal on Australian soils."