The crowned pigeons (''Goura'') is 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 ...

of birds in the 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 ...

. It contains four large species of

pigeon 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 ...

that are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and a few surrounding islands. The species are extremely similar to each other in appearance, and occupy different regions of New Guinea. The genus was introduced by the English naturalist

James Francis Stephens James Francis Stephens (16 September 1792 – 22 December 1852) was an English entomologist and naturalist. He is known for his 12 volume ''Illustrations of British Entomology'' (1846) and the ''Manual of British Beetles'' (1839). Early li ...

in 1819. They forage on the forest floor eating fallen fruit, seeds and snails. The males and females are almost identical, but during courtship the male will coo and bow for the female. Both parents incubate one egg for 28 to 30 days and the chick takes another 30 days to fledge. The life span can be over 20 years.

Systematics and evolution

The genus ''Goura'' was introduced by the English naturalist

in 1819. 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 ...

is the western crowned pigeon. The word ''Goura'' comes from the New Guinea aboriginal name for crowned pigeons. The genus contains four species: Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon and Sclater's crowned pigeon were previously considered as

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

with the English name "southern crowned-pigeon". A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2018 found that the four species in the genus formed two pairs: the western crowned pigeon was

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

to Sclater's crowned pigeon while Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon was sister to the Victoria crowned pigeon.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q834182 *