Common Ground Dove - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The Common Ground Dove is member of the genus Columbina, which are the new world ground doves. There are six other members in this genus including the Inca Dove (Columbina inca) and the Scaled Dove (Columbina squammata). The genus Columbina is in the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which are commonly known as the pigeons and doves.

There are also 15 different subspecies or races, which differ mainly in geographical location.

The subspecies are as follows:

Columbina passerina pallescens (Baird, 1860): Found in the southwest of the United States to central Texas and down through Mexico to Honduras. Males are considered to be paler and females have more white on their underbelly.

Columbina passerina socorroensis (Ridgeway, 1887): Found on Socorro Island near Mexico. They are darker brown than Columbina passerina pallescens and have shorter wings as well.

Columbina passerina neglecta (Carriker, 1910): From Central America specifically south Honduras to western Panama. They have darker feathers then Columbina passerina pallescens.

Columbina passerina passerina (Linnaeus, 1758): Found in the southeastern United States specifically southeast Texas to northern North Carolina. This is the typical common ground dove described above.

Columbina passerina bahamensis (Maynard, 1887): Found in Bermuda and in the Bahamas.

Columbina passerina aflavida (Palmer and Riley, 1902): Can be found in Cuba and the Isle of Pines. These doves are larger than usual with males having darker brown underparts. Also both males and females have darker bills.

Columbina passerina insularis (Ridgway, 1888): Found on the Cayman Islands and Hispaniola. Both its back and chest are darker than Columbina passerina bahamensis.

Columbina passerina jamaicensis (Maynard, 1899): Found in Jamaica and has a pale beak with males being very dark on the underbelly.

Columbina passerina umbrina (Buden, 1985): Found on Ile de la Tortue near Haiti. Darker on the back and the bottom part of their beak is darker.

Columbina passerina exigua (Riley, 1905): Found only on Mona Island near Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

Columbina passerina portoricensis (Lowe, 1908): Found on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Similar to Columbina passerina nigrirostris but the lower part of the beak is red.

Columbina passerina nigrirostris (Danforth, 1935): Found from The north part of the Lesser Antilles, Anguilla, Dominica and on St. Croix.

Columbina passerina trochila (Bonaparte 1855): Found on St. Lucia and Martinique. These birds have a grayish green colouration on their chest and have chestnut tail feathers.

Columbina passerina antillarum (Lowe, 1908): Found on St. Vincent Island, the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and the south Antilles.