Pigeons and doves constitute the bird clade Columbidae, that includes about 310species.

Pigeons
are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and have short, slender bills with fleshy ceres. They feed
on seeds, fruits, and plants. This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in
the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones.
In general, the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably.Pigeon is a French
word that derives from the Latin pipio, for a "peeping" chick,[1]while dove is a Germanic word that
refers to the bird's diving flight.[2] In ornithological practice, "dove" tends to be used for smaller
species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically,
the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms. The species
most commonly referred to as "pigeon" is the feral rock pigeon, common in many cities.
Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests often using sticks and other debris which may be
placed in trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs at a
time, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after seven to twenty-eight days.
[3]

Unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce "crop milk" to feed to their young,

secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Young doves and pigeons are
called "squabs".
Contents
[hide]

1 Taxonomy and systematics

2 Description

3 Distribution and habitat

4 Behaviour and ecology

5 Status and conservation

6 Relationship with humans

o

6.1 Military

6.2 Domestication

6.3 In religion

6.4 As food

7 Respiratory and circulatory physiology

o

7.1 Organ and tissue organization

7.2 Heart type and features

7.3 How the heart works

8 Relevant physical and chemical properties of pumping blood

9 Integration of respiratory and circulatory organs and effects on physiology

10 See also

11 References

12 Further reading

13 External links

Taxonomy and systematics[edit]

See also: List of Columbidae
The Pteroclididae (sandgrouse) were formerly included in the order Columbiformes largely due to
their reported ability to drink by the "sucking" or "pumping" action of peristalsis of
the esophagus ("The only other group, however, which shows the same behaviour, the Pteroclididae,
is placed near the doves just by this doubtlessly very old characteristic." [4] ); more recently, it had
been reported that they cannot drink by "sucking" or "pumping",[5] and were treated separately in the
orderPteroclidiformes and were considered to be closer to the shorebirds. [6] Recent phylogenomic
studies support the grouping of these pigeons and sangrouse together, along with mesites, forming
the sister taxon to Mirandornithes.[7][8][9][10]
Columbidae are usually divided into five subfamilies, probably inaccurately. For example the
American ground and quail doves, which are usually placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two
distinct subfamilies.[11] The order presented here follows Baptista et al. (1997)[12] with some updates.[13]
[14][15]

Osteology and DNA sequence analyses[15][16] indicate the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are better
considered as asubfamily Raphinae in the Columbidae pending availability of further information.
The arrangement of genera and naming of subfamilies is in some cases provisional, because
analysis of different DNA sequences yield results that differ, often radically, in the placement of
certain (mainly Indo-Australian) genera. This ambiguity, probably caused by long branch attraction,
seems to confirm the first pigeons evolved in the Australasian region, and that the "Treronidae" and
allied forms (crowned and pheasant pigeons, for example) represent the earliest radiation of the
group.

The dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are in all likelihood part of the Indo-Australian radiation that
produced the three small subfamilies mentioned above, with the fruit-doves and pigeons (including
the Nicobar pigeon). Therefore, they are here included as a subfamily Raphinae, pending better
material evidence of their exact relationships.
Exacerbating these issues, columbids are not well represented in the fossil record. No truly primitive
forms have been found to date. The genus Gerandia has been described from Early
Miocene deposits of France, but while it was long believed[citation needed] to be a pigeon, it is more likely
a sandgrouse.[citation needed] Fragmentary remains of a probably "ptilinopine" Early Miocene pigeon were
found in the Bannockburn Formation of New Zealand and described as Rupephaps;"Columbina"
prattae from roughly contemporary deposits of Florida is nowadays tentatively separated
in Arenicolumba, but its distinction from Columbina/Scardafella and related genera needs to be more
firmly established (e.g. by cladistic analysis). Apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant
genera. For these, and for the considerable number of more recently extinct prehistoric species, see
the respective genus accounts.

Description[edit]

Common ground dove is among the smallest species in the family

Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variations in size. The largest species is thecrowned
pigeon of New Guinea, which is nearly turkey-sized, at a weight of 24kg (4.48.8 lb) The smallest
is the New World ground-dove of the genus Columbina, which is the same size as a house
sparrow and weighs as little as 22g.[12] With a total length of more than 50cm (19 in) and weight of
almost 1kg (2 lb), the largestarboreal species is the Marquesan imperial pigeon, while the dwarf fruit
dove, which may measure as little as 13cm (5.1 in), has a marginally smaller total length than any
other species from this family.[12] Smaller species tend to be known as doves, while larger species as
pigeons, but no taxonomic basis distinguishes between the two.[12]
Overall, the Columbidae tend to have short bills and legs, and small heads on large compact bodies.
Their characteristic head bobbing was shown to be due to their natural desire to keep their vision
constant in a 1978 experiment by B. J. Frost in which they were placed on treadmills they did not
bob their heads as their surroundings were constant. [17] The wings are large and have low wing

loadings; pigeons have strong wing muscles (wing muscles comprise 3144% of their body weight)
and are among the strongest fliers of all birds. They are also highly manoeuvrable in flight.

The spotted dove, which is most commonly found in Southeast Asia

The plumage of the family is variable. Granivorous species tend to have dull plumage, with a few
exceptions, whereas the frugivorous species have brightly coloured plumage. [12] The Ptilinopus fruit
doves are some of the brightest coloured pigeons, with the three endemic species of Fiji and the
Indian Ocean Alectroenasbeing the brightest. Pigeons and doves may be sexually monochromatic
ordichromatic. In addition to bright colours, pigeons may sport crests or other ornamentation.
Like some other birds, Columbidae have no gall bladders.[18] Some medieval naturalists concluded
they have no bile (gall), which in the medieval theory of thefour humours explained the allegedly
sweet disposition of doves.[19] In fact, however, they do have gall (as Aristotle already realised), which
is secreted directly into thegut.[20]

Distribution and habitat[edit]

See also: List of Columbiformes by population

The common bronzewing is widely distributed across all of Australia and lives in most habitat types except
dense rainforest and the driest deserts

Pigeons and doves are distributed everywhere on Earth, except for the driest areas of the Sahara
Desert, Antarctica and its surrounding islands and the high Arctic. They have colonised most of the
world's oceanic islands, reaching easternPolynesia and the Chatham Islands in
the Pacific, Mauritius, the Seychelles andRunion in the Indian Ocean, and the Azores in the Atlantic
Ocean.

The family has adapted to most of the habitats available on the planet. These species may be
arboreal, terrestrial or semiterrestrial. Various species also inhabit savannas, grasslands, deserts,
temperate woodlands and forests, mangrove forests, and even the barren sands and gravels of
atolls.

The zebra dove has been widely introduced around the world.

Some species have large natural ranges. The eared dove ranges across the entirety of South
America from Colombia to Tierra Del Fuego, the Eurasian collared dovehas a massive (if
discontinuous) distribution from Britain across Europe, the Middle East, India, Pakistan and China,
and the laughing dove across most of sub-SaharanAfrica, as well as India, Pakistan and the Middle
East. Other species have a tiny, restricted distribution; this is most common in island endemics.
The whistling dove is endemic to the tiny Kadavu Island in Fiji, the Caroline ground-dove is restricted
to two islands, Truk and Pohnpei in the Caroline Islands, and the Grenada dove is restricted
to Grenada in the Caribbean. Some continental species also have tiny distributions; for example,
the black-banded fruit dove is restricted to a small area of the Arnhem Land of Australia, the Somali
pigeon is restricted to a tiny area of northern Somalia, and Moreno's ground doveis restricted to the
area around Salta and Tucuman in northern Argentina.[12]
The largest range of any species is that of the rock dove. This species had a large natural
distribution from Britain andIreland to northern Africa, across Europe, Arabia, Central Asia, India,
the Himalayas and up into China and Mongolia. The range of the species increased dramatically
upon domestication, as the species went feral in cities around the world. The species is currently
resident across most of North America, and has established itself in cities and urban areas in South
America, sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The species is not
the only pigeon to have increased its range due to the actions of man; several other species have
become established outside of their natural range after escaping captivity, and other species have
increased their natural ranges due to habitat changes caused by human activity.[12]