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.
ImageCommon nameScientific nameDistribution
Yellow-breasted fruit doveRamphiculus occipitalisPhilippines
Flame-breasted fruit doveRamphiculus marcheimontane forest of Luzon
Cream-breasted fruit doveRamphiculus merrilliLuzon group
Red-eared fruit doveRamphiculus fischerimontane Sulawesi
Jambu fruit doveRamphiculus jambupeninsular Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and western Java
Oberholser's fruit doveRamphiculus gularislowland forest of Sulawesi
Banggai fruit doveRamphiculus subgularisPeleng and Banggai Islands, in Banggai Island
Sula fruit doveRamphiculus mangoliensisSula Islands
Black-chinned fruit doveRamphiculus leclancheriPhilippines and Taiwan