The blue pigeons are a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

, ''Alectroenas'', of birds in the dove and pigeon family

Columbidae Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

. They are native to islands in the western

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

Taxonomy and evolution

The genus ''Alectroenas'' was first described in 1840 by the English zoologist George Robert Gray with the

Mauritius blue pigeon The Mauritius blue pigeon (''Alectroenas nitidissimus'') is an extinct species of blue pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar. It has two extinct relatives from the Mascarenes and thr ...

(''Alectroenas nitidissimus'') as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. The genus name combines the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

''alektruōn'', meaning "domestic cock", and ''oinas'', meaning "pigeon". The ''Alectroenas'' blue pigeons are closely interrelated and occur widely throughout islands in the western

. They are

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

and can therefore be regarded as a superspecies. There are three extant species: the

Madagascar blue pigeon The Madagascar blue pigeon (''Alectroenas madagascariensis'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. The species is closely related to the other two extant species of blue pigeon, the Comoros blue pigeon and the Seychelles blue pigeon. I ...

, the

Comoros blue pigeon The Comoros blue pigeon (''Alectroenas sganzini'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the Comoros and the coralline Seychelles. It is rated as a species of near threatened on the International Union fo ...

, and the Seychelles blue pigeon. The three Mascarene islands were home to one species each, which are all extinct; the Mauritius blue pigeon, the

Rodrigues blue pigeon The Rodrigues blue pigeon (''Alectroenas payandeei'') is an extinct species of blue pigeon which was endemic to Rodrigues. It is known only from the holotype tarsometatarsus collected in 2005, associated with remains of a Rodrigues night heron an ...

, and the Réunion blue pigeon. The blue pigeons perhaps colonised the Mascarenes, the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

or a now submerged

hot spot island In geology, hotspots (or hot spots) are volcanic locales thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. Examples include the Hawaii, Iceland, and Yellowstone hotspots. A hotspot's position on ...

by "island hopping" and evolved into a distinct genus there before reaching

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. Their closest genetic relative is the

cloven-feathered dove The cloven-feathered dove (''Drepanoptila holosericea'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Drepanoptila'', but this genus is possibly better merged into ''Ptilinopus''.Gibb, G.C., & D. Penny (2010). ...

, ''Drepanoptila holosericea'', of

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

, which they separated from 8–9 million years ago. Their ancestral group appears to be the fruit doves ('' Ptilinopus'') of Southeast Asia and Oceania.Supplementary information
(HTML abstract
Free PDFSupplementary information
/ref> The genus contains four extant or recently extinct species: * †

(''Alectroenas nitidissimus'')

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

(''Alectroenas madagascariensis'') *

(''Alectroenas sganzini'') * Seychelles blue pigeon (''Alectroenas pulcherrimus'') Two species that became extinct in prehistoric times may have belonged to this genus: * †

(''Alectroenas payandeei'') * † Réunion blue pigeon (''Alectroenas'' sp.) The Rodrigues pigeon (''Nesoenas rodericana''), now extinct, was once assigned to the genus ''Alectroenas'', but this is now believed to be erroneous. In reality, it probably belongs to an undescribed genus, as the sternum's shape is very dissimilar in its details to that of ''Alectroenas'' or ''Columba'', and indeed to any other living genus of pigeons and doves. It is most similar to that of the '' Gallicolumba'' ground doves or to a miniature version of the sternum of a ''

Ducula ''Ducula'' is a genus of the pigeon family Columbidae, collectively known as imperial pigeons. They are large to very large pigeons with a heavy build and medium to long tails. They are arboreal, feed mainly on fruit and are closely related to th ...

'' imperial pigeon.

Description

Compared to other pigeons, the blue pigeons are medium to large, stocky, and have comparatively long wings and tails. They all have distinct mobile hackles on the head and neck. The tibiotarsus is comparatively long and the

tarsometatarsus The tarsometatarsus is a bone that is only found in the lower leg of birds and some non-avian dinosaurs. It is formed from the fusion of several bones found in other types of animals, and homologous to the mammalian tarsus (ankle bones) and meta ...

is short.First page
/ref>

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q620213 * Taxa named by George Robert Gray Taxonomy articles created by Polbot