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 […]
Eared Dove (Zenaida auriculata)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Zenaida auriculata | [UK] Eared Dove | [FR] Colombe oreillarde | [DE] Ohrfleck-Taube | [ES] Zenaida Torcaza | [NL] Geoorde Treurduif Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Zenaida auriculata SA widespread Zenaida auriculata antioquiae nc Colombia Zenaida auriculata auriculata c Chile, wc […]
Long-toed Pigeon (Columba trocaz)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Columba trocaz | [UK] Long-toed Pigeon | [FR] Pigeon trocas | [DE] Silberhals-Taube | [ES] Paloma torqueza | [NL] Trocazduif Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Physical charateristics The also called Long-toed Pigeon is an endemic species of Madeira, it once existed […]
Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Streptopelia decaocto | [UK] Collared-Dove | [FR] Tourterelle turque | [DE] Turkentaube | [ES] Tortola Turca | [NL] Turkse Tortel Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Physical charateristics Collared Dove has pale greyish sandy plumage. Upperparts are pale buffy-grey on back, wings […]
White-crowned Pigeon (Patagioenas leucocephala)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Patagioenas leucocephala | [UK] White-crowned Pigeon | [FR] Pigeon a couronne blanche | [DE] Weissscheitel-Taube | [ES] Paloma corona blanca | [NL] Witkapduif Subspecies Monotypic species Physical charateristics A stocky, obviously wild pigeon, size and build of Rock Dove; completely dark except for an immaculate white crown. Listen […]
Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia turtur)
[order] COLUMBIFORMES | [family] Columbidae | [latin] Streptopelia turtur | [UK] Turtle-Dove | [FR] Tourterelle des bois | [DE] Turteltaube | [ES] Tortola Europea | [NL] Tortelduif Subspecies Genus Species subspecies Breeding Range Breeding Range 2 Non Breeding Range Physical charateristics Forehead pale bluish grey darkening on crown, nape and hindneck. Throat white, sides of […]