Plain pigeon | |
---|---|
P. i. wetmorei in Puerto Rico | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Columbiformes |
Family: | Columbidae |
Genus: | Patagioenas |
Species: | P. inornata |
Binomial name | |
Patagioenas inornata (Vigors, 1827) | |
Synonyms | |
Columba inornata Vigors, 1827 |
The plain pigeon (Patagioenas inornata) is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in the four Greater Antilles: Cuba, Hispaniola (in the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Its natural habitats are forest, woodland, coastal desert, mangrove and swampy areas. It is threatened by habitat loss and illegal hunting.
The plain pigeon is a large-bodied bird (38 cm [15 in]) that superficially resembles the common city pigeon. At a distance it appears pale blue-gray overall. The head, hindneck, breast, and part of the folded wing are colored with a red-wine wash. When folded, the wing shows a white leading edge; in flight, it forms a conspicuous wing bar. Legs and feet are dark red. The female is slightly smaller and duller than the male. Juveniles are browner overall, with pale wing margins and dark eyes.
The plain pigeon is thought to represent a fairly recent island adaptation of the red-billed pigeon (P. flavirostria) or the Maranon pigeon (P. oenops), found in Central and South America.
Three subspecies of the plain pigeon are recognized:
During the 1970s, P. i. wetmorei was on the brink of extinction. A conservation program was introduced to save the species and now it numbers a few thousand individuals. [2]
The white-necked crow is the largest of the four Caribbean corvids. It is endemic to the island of Hispaniola ; it was formerly also extant on Puerto Rico and Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands, but has been extirpated from both islands due to considerable forest clearance and hunting for meat.
The common ground dove is a small bird that inhabits the southern United States, parts of Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It is considered to be the smallest dove that inhabits the United States. As its name suggests, the bird spends the majority of its time on the ground walking but still has the ability to fly.
The white-crowned pigeon is a fruit and seed-eating species of bird in the dove and pigeon family Columbidae. It is found primarily in the Caribbean.
The pale-vented pigeon is a large pigeon found in the tropical Americas. Formerly often placed in Columba, it actually belongs to a clade of the older New World genus Patagioenas. With its relatives it represents an evolutionary radiation extending through most of the warm-temperate to tropical Americas. Grey-hued birds, even their males generally lack iridescent display plumage, although the present species has some coppery gloss on the nape.
The red-billed pigeon is a relatively large, robust species of pigeon. Its breeding range extends from southern Texas, United States, to Costa Rica. It is primarily found throughout coastal and lowland areas of Mexico and Central America. It belongs to a clade of Patagioenas which generally lack iridescent display plumage, except some vestiges in the pale-vented pigeon.
Patagioenas is a genus of New World pigeons whose distinctness from the genus Columba was long disputed but ultimately confirmed. It is basal to the Columba-Streptopelia radiation with their ancestors diverging from that lineage likely over 8 million years ago. While the biogeographic pattern of this group suggests that the ancestors of typical pigeons and turtle-doves settled the Old World from the Americas, Patagioenas may also be the offspring of Old World pigeons that radiated into different genera later, given that the cuckoo-doves (Macropygia) of Southeast Asia also seem to be closely related.
The Antillean palm swift is a species of bird in subfamily Apodinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found on the Caribbean islands of Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola.
The picazuro pigeon is a pigeon native to South America.
The scaly-naped pigeon, also known as the red-necked pigeon, is a bird belonging to the family Columbidae. The species occurs throughout the Caribbean.
The least poorwill or least pauraque is a species of nightjar in the family Caprimulgidae, and the only confirmed extant species of its genus. It is endemic to the island of Hispaniola, which is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The ring-tailed pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to Jamaica.
The bare-eyed pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Colombia, Venezuela, and the Netherlands Antilles.
The spot-winged pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The Maranon pigeon, Peruvian pigeon or Salvin's pigeon is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Ecuador and Peru.
The red-legged thrush is a species of bird in the family Turdidae. Native to the Caribbean, it is found in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. It formerly occurred on the Swan Islands, Honduras, but was extirpated there.
The loggerhead kingbird is a species of sub-oscine passerine bird belonging to the family Tyrannidae, the tyrant flycatchers. This species is found in wooded habitats in the islands of the northern Caribbean, with records of vagrants from Florida.
The Bairoa River is a river of Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Altos de San Luis, also known as Monte Altos de San Luis, is an 886 feet high and two-mile-long prominent mountain ridge located on the northern edge of the Caguas Valley, in barrio (district) Bairoa of Caguas, Puerto Rico. The ridge is bordered by the Loíza River to the north and the east, and it forms part of a larger system of mountain ridges that extends from the southwestern end of the Sierra de Luquillo in Gurabo to the northeastern end of the Cordillera Central in Aguas Buenas. Other mountains and hills along this system include the Altos de La Mesa and Cerro La Marquesa. These ridges are shaped by the Great Northern Puerto Rico fault zone (GNPRfz), an active fault zone which crosses the island diagonally from southeast to northwest.