Columbidae Pigeons and Doves
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
With their small heads, characteristic head-bobbing walking gait, and deep-stroked flight, doves and pigeons are familiar worldwide. In many regions, this group is represented by a collection of earthtoned species that differ in small aspects of white spotting, etc. But, as with parrots, the columbid fauna of Australia is diverse in plumage and morphology. Almost all columbids build a flimsy platform nest of sticks, and most lay only one or two eggs. By feeding their young chicks “crop milk” from the epithelial cells of their alimentary tract, they can take advantage of a diverse diet and thus extend their breeding seasons longer than any other temperate birds in the wild.
Habitat
Pigeons and doves occupy a wide range of habitats—mostly terrestrial—from arid desert and scrubland to dense tropical rainforest, and including the dense urban areas of the world.
Diet and Foraging
Pigeons and doves can generally be categorized as granivores, eating mostly seeds, or frugivores, eating mostly fruit. A few species eat mostly insects and others add flowers and snails to their diets.
Breeding
Doves and pigeons are monogamous with biparental care. Some species are colonial nesters, the most famous of which is the now-extinct Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), but several extant species, including wild Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), nest in aggregated fashion. Most dove nests consist of a loose, flimsy, and thin platforms of sticks and other vegetation, usually built on a branch or in the fork of a branch, but also on the ground. Females typically lay 1 or 2 eggs, which take 11 to 30 days to hatch (longer in larger species). In some species, the female may be the only one to build the nest, but with material brought by the male, and in other species, the male builds alone. Both sexes incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. Pigeons and doves are famous for feeding their chicks “crop milk,” a secretion of epithelial cells of the crop that consists mainly of water, protein, and fat.
Conservation Status
Threatened by habitat destruction, the introduction of mammalian predators, and hunting, 118 columbid species (34%) are at risk (48 NT, 40 VU, 18 EN, 11 CR, 1 EW). A few especially notable species have become extinct in recent times. The Passenger Pigeon occurred in eastern North America, and with a population size numbering in the billions was among the most abundant birds in the world before being driven to extinction by market hunting and deforestation. The Dodo Raphus cucullatus occurred on the island of Mauritius; harvested by sailors and likely preyed upon by rats, cats, and pigs that came with the sailors, it went extinct by about 1680. The Rodrigues Solitaire Pezophaps solitaria likewise occurred on a single island in the Indian Ocean, and its path to extinction was similar to the Dodo’s; both extinctions are emblematic of many columbid extinctions over the past several hundred years, and of the tenuous future for many island endemic doves. For example, the Socorro Dove Zenaida graysoni, endemic to a small island off the coast of Mexico, is considered extinct in the wild and exists only in captivity, where roughly 100 individuals are being bred for future release.
Systematics History
The doves and pigeons are the sole members of Columbiformes. The relationship of the doves and pigeons to other birds has long been controversial. Morphological studies have sometimes suggested that Columbiformes is sister to Pterocliformes (Livezey & Zusi 2007). Recent molecular phylogenetic studies confirm this close relationship with the sandgrouse, and generally place the doves and pigeons within an ancient group of avian orders that also includes the diverse families in Caprimulgiformes, plus Pterocliformes, Mesitornithiformes, Phoenicopteriformes, and Podicipediformes (Ericson et al. 2006a, Hackett et al. 2008), within which they may be particularly close to Mesitornithiformes and Pterocliformes (Jarvis et al. 2014). Within Columbidae, Columbinae is sister to the clade made up of Raphinae plus Peristerinae (Pereira et al. 2007), and the placement of tribes and genera within these subfamilies follows the treatment in del Hoyo and Collar (2014).
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
60.3%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
12.5%
|
Vulnerable |
8.5%
|
Endangered |
5.1%
|
Critically Endangered |
3.1%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0.28%
|
Extinct |
4.2%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0.28%
|
Unknown |
5.7%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information