Zenaida doves
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[Photo] Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura). Date March 6 2007. Author Ltshears - Trisha M Shears. Permission: Public Domain.

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

White-winged Dove, Zenaida asiatica
Pacific 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 Pacific 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 ??? although with a very low confidence level - and, most robustly, biogeography).

The name of this genus commemorates Z??na??de Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, wife of Charles Lucien Bonaparte.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenaida_doves

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