Text extracted from Gill B.J.; Bell, B.D.; Chambers, G.K.; Medway, D.G.; Palma, R.L.; Scofield, R.P.; Tennyson, A.J.D.; Worthy, T.H. 2010. Checklist of the birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. 4th edition. Wellington, Te Papa Press and Ornithological Society of New Zealand. Pages 244-245.

Order COLUMBIFORMES: Pigeons and Doves Suborder COLUMBAE: Pigeons and Doves Family COLUMBIDAE Illiger: Pigeons and Doves Columbini Illiger, 1811: Prodromus Syst. Mamm. Avium: 243 – Type genus Columba Linnaeus, 1758.

Recent classifications of pigeons (e.g. del Hoyo & Sargatal 1997) usually divide the family into five subfamilies: Columbinae Illiger, 1811 (mainly seed-eating pigeons); Treroninae G.R. Gray, 1840 (fruit- eating pigeons); Gourinae G.R. Gray, 1840 (crowned pigeons); and the monotypic Otidiphapinae Verheyen, 1957 (pheasant pigeon) and Didunculinae G.R. Gray, 1848 (Samoan tooth-billed pigeon). The dodo and solitaire, often distinguished as the family Raphidae Wetmore, 1930, should be included within Columbidae (e.g. Kitchener 1993). Recent molecular studies by Johnson & Clayton (2000), Johnson et al. (2001) and Shapiro et al. (2002) show that all these taxa form a monophyletic clade, but do not support the division into the above subfamilies. Here we follow the generic order given by del Hoyo & Sargatal (1997). As both the ordinal status and subfamilial groupings are only partly supported by recent molecular work, future revisions of pigeon higher taxonomy are likely. For this reason we refrain from using subfamilial groupings.

Gray (1862: 232) listed Phaps picata (Latham, 1802) (= Leucosarcia melanoleuca (Latham, 1802), wonga pigeon) and Phaps chalcoptera (Latham, 1790) (= common bronzewing) from Norfolk Island. These species records have not been substantiated by specimens or by subsequent records of the same species on that island, so we have omitted them from the Norfolk Island list.

Genus *Columba Linnaeus Columba Linnaeus, 1758: Syst. Nat., 10th edition 1: 162 – Type species (by subsequent designation) Columba oenas Linnaeus.

*Columba livia Gmelin Rock Pigeon Columba domestica β livia Gmelin, 1789: Syst. Nat., 13th edition 1(2): 769 – south Europe. Columba livia Gmelin; Checklist Committee 1953, Checklist N.Z. Birds: 53.

Europe, North Africa and west Asia. Domestic forms brought to New Zealand in the early days of European settlement have become feral in most cities and major towns. In rural areas, widespread, mainly in low-rainfall zones of Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, Canterbury and Otago. It was a well-established, and numerous, breeding species on Norfolk Island by Mar. to Apr. 1825 (Backhouse 1843: 257, 264)—not 1838, as stated by Higgins & Davies (1996: 840).