Laurel Pigeon - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The genus Columba is the largest within the pigeon family, and has the widest distribution. Its members are typically pale grey or brown, often with white head or neck markings or iridescent green or purple patches on the neck and breast. The neck feathers may be stiffened and aligned to form grooves. One of several subgroups within Columba consists of the widespread Eurasian Common Wood Pigeon, Bolle's Pigeon, the Trocaz Pigeon, and the African Afep Pigeon. The two Macaronesian endemic pigeons, Bolle's and Trocaz, are thought to be derived from isolated island populations of C. palumbus.

The Atlantic archipelagos of the Canaries, Azores, and Madeira have a volcanic origin and they have never been part of a continent. The formation of Madeira started in the Miocene and the island was substantially complete by 700,000 years ago. At various times in the past, the major islands of these archipelagos were all colonised by ancestral wood pigeons, which evolved on their respective islands in isolation from the mainland populations. Mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences suggest that the ancestor of Bolle's Pigeon may have arrived in the Canaries about 5 mya, but an older lineage that gave rise to another Canarian endemic, the Laurel Pigeon, C. junoniae, may date from 20 mya. The most recent wood pigeon arrival on Macaronesia was that which gave rise to the subspecies C. palumbus maderensis.

The Trocaz Pigeon was formally described in 1829 by Karl Heineken. He recognised it as different from the now-extinct local form of the Madeiran Wood Pigeon a sub-species of the Common Wood Pigeon. This is a monotypic species, although in the past the canarian Bolle's Pigeon was sometimes regarded as a subspecies of the Trocaz Pigeon.