Zenaida (genus)

Zenaida
Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Subfamily: Columbinae
Tribe: Zenaidini
Genus: Zenaida
Bonaparte, 1838
Type species
Zenaida amabilis
Bonaparte, 1838
Species

See text

Synonyms
  • Melopelia
  • Zenaidura
Audio
Call of a mourning dove

Zenaida is a small genus of American doves in the family Columbidae. It contains seven extant species including Zenaida aurita, which is known as the Zenaida dove.

Taxonomy

The genus was introduced in 1838 by French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The name commemorates his wife, Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon Bonaparte. The type species is the Zenaida dove, Zenaida aurita. It is the national bird of Anguilla.

DNA sequence analysis confirms that the white-winged and West Peruvian doves are the most distinct and that they should be treated as distinct species. Relationships among the other species are quite unequivocal, too; what is not quite clear is whether the Galapagos dove is most closely related to the Zenaida dove (as tentatively indicated by morphology) or to the eared and mourning doves (as suggested by DNA sequences — although with a very low confidence level – and, most robustly, biogeography).

Zenaidini 

Geotrygon – 9 species

Leptotila – 11 species

Leptotrygon – olive-backed quail-dove

Zenaida – 7 species

Zentrygon – 8 species

Cladogram showing the position of genera in the tribe Zenaidini.
Zenaida 

White-winged dove (Z. asiatica)

West Peruvian dove (Z. meloda)

Zenaida dove (Z. aurita)

Eared dove (Z. auriculata)

Socorro dove (Z. graysoni)

Mourning dove (Z. macroura)

Cladogram showing the relationships of six species of doves in the genus Zenaida. This study did not include the Galápagos dove (Z. galapagoensis).

Extant species

The genus contains seven species:

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Zenaida melodaWest Peruvian dovefrom southern Ecuador to northern Chile
Zenaida asiaticaWhite-winged doveSouthwestern United States through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
Zenaida graysoniSocorro doveSocorro Island in the Revillagigedo Islands; extinct in the wild
Zenaida macrouraMourning doveMost of Canada and USA to south central Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and Panama
Zenaida auritaZenaida doveCaribbean and the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula
Zenaida galapagoensisGalápagos doveGalápagos, off Ecuador
Zenaida auriculataEared doveSouth America from Colombia to southern Argentina and Chile, and on the offshore islands from the Grenadines southwards

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Columbidae". Howard & Moore Checklist Online. Trust for Avian Systematics. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  2. ↑ Bonaparte, Charles Lucien (1838). A Geographical and Comparative List of the Birds of Europe and North America. London: John Van Voorst. p. 41.
  3. ↑ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 414. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  4. ↑ Peters, James Lee, ed. (1937). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 3. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 86.
  5. ↑ BirdLife International (2020). "Zenaida aurita". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020 e.T22690750A163499479. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T22690750A163499479.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  6. ↑ Johnson, Kevin P. & Clayton, Dale H. (2000). "A molecular phylogeny of the dove genus Zenaida: mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences" (PDF). Condor. 102 (4): 864–870. doi:10.1650/0010-5422(2000)102[0864:ampotd]2.0.co;2. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2026-06-20.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  7. ↑ Banks, R.C.; Weckstein, J.D.; Remsen Jr, J.V.; Johnson, K.P. (2013). "Classification of a clade of New World doves (Columbidae: Zenaidini)". Zootaxa. 3669 (2): 184–188. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3669.2.11.
  8. ↑ Johnson, K.P.; Weckstein, J.D. (2011). "The Central American land bridge as an engine of diversification in New World doves". Journal of Biogeography. 38: 1069–1076. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02501.x.
  9. ↑ Banks, R.C.; Weckstein, J.D.; Remsen, J.V. Jr.; Johnson, K.P. (2013). "Classification of a clade of New World doves (Columbidae: Zenaidini)". Zootaxa. 3669 (2): 184–188. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3669.2.11. PMID 26312335.
  10. ↑ AviList Core Team (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025". doi:10.2173/avilist.v2025. Retrieved 2026-06-20.
  11. ↑ Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (2020). "Pigeons". IOC World Bird List Version 10.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 2 March 2020.