Zenaida dove

The Zenaida doves (Zenaida) make up a small genus of American doves. There are 7 species:


 * White-winged Dove,  Zenaida asiatica
 * West Peruvian Dove,  Zenaida meloda
 * Zenaida Dove,  Zenaida aurita
 * Galapagos Dove,  Zenaida galapagoensis
 * Eared Dove,  Zenaida auriculata
 * Mourning Dove,  Zenaida macroura
 * Socorro Dove,  Zenaida graysoni (extinct in the wild)

DNA sequence analysis (Johnson & Clayton, 2000) confirms that the White-winged and West Peruvian Doves are the most distinct and that they should be treated as good 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 &mdash; although with a very low confidence level - and, most robustly, biogeography).

The name of this genus commemorates Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, wife of the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte and niece of Napoleon Bonaparte.