Dove and pigeon names split by size, not by biology
Columbidae, the only family in Columbiformes, holds 52 genera and 353 species of stout seed-eating birds with short bills and fleshy ceres. English speakers often call small ones doves and large ones pigeons, yet the split is inconsistent and scientifically empty.
Doves and pigeons make up Columbidae, the single family in the order Columbiformes, with 52 genera and 353 species. They are compact, small-headed birds with short legs and short bills, some bearing a fleshy cere, and they eat seeds, fruit and leaves. They live on every continent except Antarctica, avoiding only the driest Sahara and the high Arctic, and have reached remote islands from eastern Polynesia and the Chatham Islands to Mauritius and the Azores. Diversity peaks in the Indomalayan and Australasian realms, yet many species live close to people; the city feral pigeon descends from the wild rock dove.
English tends to call small species doves and large ones pigeons, but the habit is inconsistent and has no scientific basis. Pigeon came through French from Latin pipio, a peeping chick, while dove, like Old Norse dufa, echoes the cooing of woodpigeons. Sizes range from the common ground dove, barely bigger than a house sparrow at about 22 grams, to New Guinea's nearly turkey-sized crowned pigeons of up to 4 kilograms. The extinct, flightless dodo was the largest columbid ever. Around 118 species, 34 percent, are at risk and 13 are extinct, including the passenger pigeon, which once flocked in billions and vanished in 1914.
Wing muscles account for 31 to 44 percent of a pigeon's body weight, making the group among the strongest fliers of all birds, and some European turtle doves migrate more than 5,000 kilometres to tropical Africa. Loosely rooted feathers may help them escape predators by coming away in an attacker's mouth. Medieval naturalists thought doves lacked bile, explaining their supposed sweetness; in fact they lack only a gall bladder. Experiments in 1975 and 1978 showed that head bobbing keeps their view steady: pigeons on treadmills stopped bobbing.
Source: Columbidae
