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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 feed on seeds, fruits, and plants. The family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms.

The family contains 344 species divided into 50 genera. Thirteen of the species are extinct.

In English, the smaller species tend to be called "doves" and the larger ones "pigeons". However, the distinction is not consistent, and does not exist in most other languages. Historically, the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms. The bird most commonly referred to as just "pigeon" is the domestic pigeon, which is common in many cities as the feral pigeon.

Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests, often using sticks and other debris, which may be placed on branches of trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or (usually) two white eggs at a time, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after 25–32 days. Unfledged baby doves and pigeons are called squabs and are generally able to fly by 5 weeks of age. These fledglings, with their immature squeaking voices, are called squeakers once they are weaned or weaning. 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.

Etymology

is a French word that derives from the Latin , for a "peeping" chick, while ''dove'' is an ultimately Germanic word that refers to the bird's diving flight. The English dialectal word appears to derive from Latin . A group of doves is called a "dule", taken from the French word ('mourning').

Origin and evolution

Columbiformes is one of the most diverse non-passerine clades of neoavians, and its origins are in the Cretaceous and the result of a rapid diversification at the end of the K-Pg boundary. Whole genome analyses have found the columbiformes form a sister clade of a group conformed by the sandgrouses (Pterocliformes) and mesites ( Mesitornithiformes).

Taxonomy and systematics

The name 'Columbidae' for the family was introduced by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1820. Columbidae is the only living family in the order Columbiformes. The sandgrouse (Pteroclidae) were formerly placed here, but were moved to a separate order, Pterocliformes, based on anatomical differences (such as the inability to drink by "sucking" or "pumping").

The Columbidae are usually divided into five subfamilies, probably inaccurately. For example, the American ground and quail doves ('' Geotrygon''), which are usually placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two distinct subfamilies. The order presented here follows Baptista etal. (1997), with some updates.Supplementary information
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The arrangement of genera and naming of subfamilies is in some cases provisional because analyses 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 family Columbidae previously also contained the family Raphidae, consisting of the extinct Rodrigues solitaire and the dodo. These species 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 in France, but while it was long believed to be a pigeon, it is now considered a sandgrouse. 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.

List of genera

Fossil species of uncertain placement:
* Genus †''Arenicolumba'' Steadman, 2008
* Genus †'' Rupephaps'' Worthy, Hand, Worthy, Tennyson, & Scofield, 2009 (St. Bathans pigeon, Miocene of New Zealand)

Subfamily Columbinae (typical pigeons and doves)

* Tribe Zenaidini eptotilinae(quail-doves and allies)
** Genus '' Geotrygon'' (10 species)
** Genus ''Starnoenas'' (blue-headed quail-dove)
** Genus '' Leptotrygon'' (olive-backed quail-dove)
** Genus ''Leptotila'' (11 species)
** Genus ''Zenaida

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