The story The celebrated Passenger Pigeon has, perhaps, the most extraordinary story of any extinct bird. It may once have been the most numerous bird on Earth, and at the start of the nineteenth century vast flocks of this species blackened American skies. Yet during the course of 100 years the tremendous numbers dwindled until […]
Category: Columbiformes
Rodrigues Pigeon (Alectroenas rodericana)
The story This species is known from bones discovered on Rodrigues during the 1870’s and described by Alphonse Milne-Edwards, the celebrated expert on fossil birds at the Paris museum. Milne-Edwards described the species primarily on the evidence of a sternum, and chose to assign it to the genus Columba, whereas later researchers have shown an […]
Rodrigues Solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria)
The story The island of Rodrigues, far out in the Indian Ocean, is one of the Mascarene group and here a dodo-like species evolved from an ancestral pigeon stock. This species has become known as the Rodrigues Solitaire. The Huguenot refugee Francois Leguat, whose name occurs so regularly in the stories of extinct birds, took […]
Ryukyu Woodpigeon (Columba jouyi)
The story This species, closely related to the last, occurred on the Ryukyu and Daito Islands, another of the island groups to the south of Japan. It was last recorded on the Daito Islands during 1936. Although certainly extinct on Okinawa where it was last seen in 1904, the species may possibly cling to existence […]
Tanna Ground-dove (Gallicolumba ferruginea)
The story The Tanna Ground-dove is known today from just a single, rather crude, painting by Georg Forster that was produced during Captain Cook’s second voyage around the world. This painting is in the Forster portfolio at the Natural History Museum, London, and in the margin the following words are inscribed: Tanna, female, 17th August […]
Laurel Pigeon (Columba junoniae)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Columba junoniae | [UK] Laurel Pigeon | [FR] Pigeon des lauriers | [DE] Lorbeertaube | [ES] Paloma rabiche | [NL] Laurierduif Subspecies Monotypic species Physical charateristics Like Long-toed and Bolle’s Laurel Pigeons (Columba trocaz, C. bollii), in size (L 39 cm), but has brown back, wine-red breast and […]
Pale-vented Pigeon (Columba cayennensis)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Columba cayennensis | [UK] Pale-vented Pigeon | [FR] Pigeon rousset | [DE] | [ES] Paloma Colorada | [NL] Rosse Duif Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Patagioenas cayennensis LA s Mexico to n Argentina Patagioenas cayennensis andersoni se Colombia and e Ecuador […]
Laughing Dove (Spilopelia senegalensis)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Spilopelia senegalensis | [UK] Laughing Dove | [FR] Tourterelle maillee | [DE] Palmtaube | [ES] | [NL] Palmtortel Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Macropygia senegalensis Spilopelia senegalensis AF, EU, OR India and c Asia to s Arabian Peninsula and AF Spilopelia […]
Plain-breasted Ground-Dove (Columbina minuta)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Columbina minuta | [UK] Plain-breasted Ground-Dove | [FR] Colombe pygmee | [DE] Zwergtaubchen | [ES] Palomita Enana (Arg), Columbina Menuda, Tortolita Menuda (Cr), Turquita Chica (HN) | [NL] Dwergduif Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Physical charateristics The forehead is pale pinkish-grey. […]
Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Streptopelia orientalis | [UK] Oriental Turtle Dove | [FR] Tourterelle orientale | [DE] Orient-Turteltaube | [ES] Tortola Oriental | [NL] Oosterse Tortel Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Streptopelia orientalis EU, OR c, e Asia through India and Southeast Asia Streptopelia orientalis […]