Gallicolumba

Gallicolumba is a mid-sized genus of ground-dwelling doves (family Columbidae), most of which occur in rainforests on the Philippines. Local name 'punay' which is a general term for pigeons and doves. They are not closely related to the American ground doves genus (Columbina and related genera). Rather, the present genus is closest to the thick-billed ground pigeon.

Gallicolumba
Luzon bleeding-heart, Gallicolumba luzonica
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Columbiformes
Family:	Columbidae
Subfamily:	Columbinae
Genus:	Gallicolumba Heck, 1849[1]
Type species
Columba cruenta[2] Gmelin, 1789
Diversity
See text
Synonyms
Plegoenas Reichenbach, 1851 Phlegoenas Reichenbach, 1852 (unj. Emend.)

The Filipino species are known as bleeding-hearts due to their vivid-red patch on the breast, which looks startlingly like a bleeding wound in some species and has reminded naturalists of a dagger stab. The diet of doves of this genus consists of fruits and seed.

Systematics and extinctions

Gallicolumba might be ranked as a (very small) subfamily, but the available data suggests that they are better considered part of a quite basal radiation of Columbidae which consists of many small and often bizarre lineages (e.g. Goura and Otidiphaps which are ecologically convergent to Galliformes, and maybe even the famous didines (Raphinae).

The genus contains seven species:^[3]

• Sulawesi ground dove, Gallicolumba tristigmata
• Cinnamon ground dove, Gallicolumba rufigula
• Luzon bleeding-heart, Gallicolumba luzonica
• Mindanao bleeding-heart, Gallicolumba crinigera
• Mindoro bleeding-heart, Gallicolumba platenae
• Negros bleeding-heart, Gallicolumba keayi
• Sulu bleeding-heart, Gallicolumba menagei - possibly extinct (late 1990s?)

Many of the Pacific ground doves were removed from Gallicolumba (which was non-monophyletic) and reassigned to the genus Alopecoenas, which was later renamed Pampusana.^[3][4][5]