Zenaida doves


The zenaida doves make up a small genus of American doves in the family Columbidae.
The genus was introduced in 1838 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The name commemorates his wife, Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, niece of Napoleon Bonaparte. The type species is the Zenaida dove, Zenaida aurita.
The genus contains seven species:
DNA sequence analysis confirms that the white-winged and west Peruvian doves are the most distinct and that they should be treated as distinct 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 or to the eared and mourning doves.