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 *Streptopelia Bonaparte Streptopelia Bonaparte, 1855: Compt. Rend. Séa. Acad. Sci., Paris 40: 17 – Type species (by subsequent designation) Columba risoria Linnaeus = Streptopelia risoria (Linnaeus, 1758).

*Streptopelia risoria (Linnaeus) Barbary Dove Columba risoria Linnaeus, 1758: Syst. Nat., 10th edition 1: 165 – India. Columbam roseogriseam Sundevall, 1857: Kungl. Svenska Vetenskapsakad. Handl. 2(1): 54 – Nubia, Sudan. Turtur risorius (Linnaeus); Hutton 1871, Cat. Birds N.Z.: 64. Streptopelia ‘risoria’ (Linnaeus); Goodwin 1970, Pigeons Doves World: 117. Streptopelia roseogrisea (Sundevall); Checklist Committee 1990, Checklist Birds N.Z.: 173. Streptopelia ‘risoria’ (Linnaeus); Higgins & Davies 1996, HANZAB 3: 864. Streptopelia risoria (Linnaeus); ICZN 2008, Bull. Zool. Nomenclature 65(4): 327.

North Africa, Arabian Peninsula. This is the domesticated form, also known as ring dove. In New Zealand: first introduced to Nelson, in 1867, and later to Canterbury and Dunedin (Thomson 1922). Since about 1970, there have been feral populations at various places in the North Island from Northland to the Wairarapa. Presently in isolated locations and rare, though reported as locally common about Kerikeri, Auckland and in the Hawke’s Bay. The Masterton population established in the 1970s (Stidolph 1974b) did not persist (Heather & Robertson 1996). A few recent South Island sightings (Robertson, C. et al. 2007).