Madagascar Blue-Pigeon

About the Madagascar Blue-Pigeon

The Madagascar blue pigeon or Madagascan blue pigeon (Alectroenas madagascariensis) is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. The species is closely related to the other two extant species of blue pigeon, the Comoros blue pigeon and the Seychelles blue pigeon. It is endemic to northern and eastern Madagascar.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Madagascar blue pigeon in his six volume Ornithologie. He used the French name Le pigeon ramier bleu de Madagascar and the Latin Palumbus coeruleus madagascariensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Madagascar blue pigeon which he placed with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Columba madagascariensis and cited Brisson's work. This pigeon is now placed in the genus Alectroenas that was introduced... Wikipedia →