The fossil record and history of doves on Bermuda (Aves: Columbidae)

Abstract

Four bones of a dove from Bermuda are tentatively identified with the West Indian Zenaida Dove as cf. Zenaida aurita. These occur in deposits dating to about 55,000 to 28,000 years ago that formed during the last glacial period when the land area of Bermuda was much larger. At that time, the West Indies would have been a much more likely source area than eastern North America for dove as a potential colonist of Bermuda. The Bermuda dove appears to have been a resident and perhaps became extinct as a result of flooding of the Bermuda platform and reduction in land area during the present interglacial. The two doves found on Bermuda today (Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura and Common Ground Dove Columbina passerina) are absent in the fossil record and apparently did not become established on the island until after human settlement in the seventeenth century.