Zenaida Dove

About the Zenaida Dove

The Zenaida dove (Zenaida aurita) is the type species of the genus Zenaida, member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes doves and pigeons. Its range is found throughout the Caribbean islands, and along the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is the national bird of Anguilla.

The Zenaida dove was first described in 1809 by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck, who originally classified it as Columba aurita in the ornithological documentation of Les Pigeons, and later moved as the Zenaida amabilis to its current genus of Zenaida in 1838, where it is classified as being closely related to species such as the mourning dove and the eared dove.

The genus Zenaida comes from Zénaïde Bonaparte, wife of French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who first introduced the genus itself in 1838. The species epithet, aurita, means "eared" or "having ears" in Latin, referencing the black auricular patches located close to their eyes, where their ears would be located.

Documented and verified subspecies include: Z. a. aurita (Temminck, 1809) – Its breeding range stretches throughout the Lesser Antilles: found across both the Leeward and Winward Islands... Wikipedia →