 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ryukyu wood pigeon" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Ryukyu wood pigeon | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Columbiformes |
| Family: | Columbidae |
| Genus: | Columba |
| Species: | †C. jouyi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Columba jouyi (Stejneger, 1887) | |
| Synonyms | |
Janthoenas jouyiStejneger, 1887 | |
TheRyukyu wood pigeon (Columba jouyi), otherwise known as thesilver-banded orsilver-crescented pigeon is anextinct species ofdove of thegenusColumba. This wood pigeon wasendemic to theLaurel forest habitat.
It is anextinctspecies ofpigeon that wasendemic to islands in theOkinawa archipelago southwest of theJapanese mainland. In the Okinawa group, it has been recorded fromIheyajima,Izenajima,Okinawa proper and the nearby isletYagachijima. In theKerama Retto to the west of Okinawa, it was found onZamamijima, whereas in theDaitō group, some 300 km to the SE of Okinawa, it occurred on both major islets,Kita Daitōjima andMinami Daitōjima. In earlier times, it was most likely found on other islands near Okinawa, such asIejima. The species' scientific name honors Stejneger's friend, the specimen collectorPierre Louis Jouy.
Leonhard Stejnege, in his 1887 English publication "Description of a New Species of Fruit-Pigeon", describes the species as similar toColumba janthina:
"but with a large whitepatch on the lower hind neck and the anterior portion of the interscapilium; metallic reflections on scapulars and back bronzy-green, not purple as in C. janthina."[2]
Three skins are recorded in the specimen register of three skins in theNatural History Museum at Tring.[3]
Like all species of Japanese wood pigeons, the Ryukyu wood pigeon was susceptible tohabitat destruction. It required substantial areas of undisturbed subtropical forest to thrive.Iejima, for example, was deforested for settlement and agriculture even before scientific exploration began, which explains the absence of records from this island. The species was last recorded on Okinawa in 1904, probably succumbing to hunting. In the Daitō group, it disappeared after 1936 due to these small islands being completely deforested by settlement and construction activity prior toWorld War II. It was presumed to continue to exist on the outlying islands in the Okinawa group, but has never been found again.
Theoretically, there is sufficient habitat remaining in the mountains of Okinawa. The military activity during World War II and hunting by the Japanese garrison would probably have yielded sightings, if birds still had existed there. More puzzling is the absence ofany records fromTokashikijima in the Kerama Retto, which, despite being small, has still mostly intact forest cover even today; Zamamijima, where the species is known to have occurred is smaller still and situated further away from the Okinawan mainland.
