Ramphiculus
Ramphiculus is a genus of fruit doves in the family Columbidae. They are restricted to the Philippines and Sulawesi apart from the Jambu fruit dove that occurs on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo. These are colourful frugivorous doves that are found in forests and woodlands.
Taxonomy
The genus Ramphiculus was introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte who listed two species but did not specify a type species. In 1855 the English zoologist George Gray designated the type as Ptilonopus occipitalis Gray GR, 1844, the yellow-breasted fruit dove. The genus name is a diminutive of the Ancient Greek ῥαμφη/rhamphē meaning "bill".The species placed in this genus were formerly placed in the genus Ptilinopus. A molecular genetic study published in 2014 found that the fruit dove genus Ptilinopus was paraphyletic. In a step towards creating monophyletic genera, two species were moved from Ptilinopus to Megaloprepia and nine species were moved from Ptilinopus to Ramphiculus.
Species
The genus contains 9 species.| Image | Common name | Scientific name | Distribution |
| Yellow-breasted fruit dove | Ramphiculus occipitalis | Philippines | |
| Flame-breasted fruit dove | Ramphiculus marchei | montane forest of Luzon | |
| Cream-breasted fruit dove | Ramphiculus merrilli | Luzon group | |
| Red-eared fruit dove | Ramphiculus fischeri | montane Sulawesi | |
| Jambu fruit dove | Ramphiculus jambu | peninsular Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and western Java | |
| Oberholser's fruit dove | Ramphiculus gularis | lowland forest of Sulawesi | |
| Banggai fruit dove | Ramphiculus subgularis | Peleng and Banggai Islands, in Banggai Island | |
| Sula fruit dove | Ramphiculus mangoliensis | Sula Islands | |
| Black-chinned fruit dove | Ramphiculus leclancheri | Philippines and Taiwan |