And there I found myself face to face with a live Barbary dove on her nest, her small dark eyes inwardly focused on nothing more than the need to sit, the feathers on her crossed wings lifting in a dusty breeze curling up from the streets below.
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Other Columbidae species (e.g., the domesticated Barbary dove, Streptopelia risoria) have been developed into breeds, but these are generally simple colour variations. See also List of Columbidae species.
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The genus Streptopelia was introduced in 1855 by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The name is from the Ancient Greek streptos meaning "collar" and peleia meaning "dove". Also in 1855, the English zoologist George Robert Gray designated the type species as Streptopelia risoria, the Barbary dove. Although Streptopelia risoria has been confirmed as a valid name by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, the Barbary dove may be a domesticated form of the African collared dove (Streptopelia roseogrisea).
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Flight feathers are darker, and nearly black. Head, neck and breast are pinkish shading to white on the chin and belly. There is little sexual dimorphism. The African collared dove is the species thought to be the wild ancestor of the domestic Barbary dove, though some suggest the Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) may also have been involved.
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Since the sandpipers are polygamous, they mate (or search for a mate) for the duration of daylight. Males do not require as much sleep during this time; some have been observed to give up 95 percent of their sleep time during the nineteen mating days.Lendrem, D. W. (June 3, 2006). "Sleeping and vigilance in birds, II. An experimental study of the Barbary dove (Streptopelia risoria)".
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The African collared dove is able to hybridise with the Barbary dove, and it is thought that the increase in the range of colours of Barbary doves available that occurred in the later 20th century was the result of the importation of African collared doves into the United States for interbreeding. It is reported to have been introduced into New Zealand, but it is more likely that the birds there are descended from domestic Barbary doves.
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Several European thrush species and the barbary dove are numerous enough to influence the dispersal of plants like Celtis australis, Cynanchum acutum, and bittersweet nightshade. The Tranquera Reservoir and Gallocanta Lagoon create marsh land, which are home to mallards, ducks, pochard, coots, teal, herons and cormorants. Frogs, painted frog, newts, lizards, and various kinds of snakes can be found here as well. The most common fish are trout, catfish and nase, and some areas are stocked with carp and rainbow trout.
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A number of Streptopelia species are very similar in appearance, all having semi-collars and subdued plumage tones. The ring-necked dove is distinguished from its locally sympatric sister species, the African collared dove, by call, the paler bases of the tail feathers, and the grey rather than pink crown feathers. On appearance alone, it may also be confused with the Eurasian collared dove, vinaceous dove, red-eyed dove, red collared dove, mourning collared dove or the Barbary dove, the last of these a popular cage bird with isolated feral populations. The red-eyed dove is generally similar, with an identical display flight.
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The cladogram below follows the 2012 DNA study showing the position of the passenger pigeon among its closest relatives: DNA in old museum specimens is often degraded and fragmentary, and passenger pigeon specimens have been used in various studies to discover improved methods of analyzing and assembling genomes from such material. DNA samples are often taken from the toe pads of bird skins in museums, as this can be done without causing significant damage to valuable specimens. The passenger pigeon had no known subspecies. Hybridization occurred between the passenger pigeon and the Barbary dove (Streptopelia risoria) in the aviary of Charles Otis Whitman (who owned many of the last captive birds around the turn of the 20th century, and kept them with other pigeon species) but the offspring were infertile.
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The Arabic phrase Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafāʾ (short for, among many possible transcriptions, ', meaning "Brethren of Purity, Loyal Friends, People worthy of praise and Sons of Glory") can be translated as either the "Brethren of Purity" or the "Brethren of Sincerity"; various scholars such as Ian Netton prefer "of Purity" because of the group's ascetic impulses towards purity and salvation. A suggestion made by Ignác Goldziher, and later written about by Philip Khuri Hitti in his History of the Arabs, is that the name is taken from a story in Kalilah waDimnah, in which a group of animals, by acting as faithful friends (ikhwan al-safa), escape the snares of the hunter. The story concerns a Barbary dove and its companions who get entangled in the net of a hunter seeking birds. Together, they leave themselves and the ensnaring net to a nearby rat, who is gracious enough to gnaw the birds free of the net; impressed by the rat's altruistic deed, a crow becomes the rat's friend.
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Rock doves, also known as pigeons: feral animals who nonetheless live in close proximity to humans A feral Barbary dove in Tasmania, Australia. Also known as a ringneck dove or ring dove (Streptopelia risoria) Rock pigeons were formerly kept for their meat or more commonly as racing animals and have established feral populations in cities worldwide. Colonies of honey bees often escape into the wild from managed apiaries when they swarm; their behavior, however, is no different from their behavior "in captivity", until and unless they breed with other feral honey bees of a different genetic stock, which may lead them to become more docile or more aggressive (see Africanized bees). Large colonies of feral parrots are present in various parts of the world, with rose-ringed parakeets, monk parakeets and red-masked parakeets (the latter of which became the subject of the documentary film, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill) being particularly successful outside of their native habitats and adapting well to suburban environments.
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