Mourning doves (Zenaida macrura) are the most common bird species in Georgia, but they aren’t nearly as abundant as the now extinct passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) used to be seasonally in state. Their cooing can be heard in fields and yards throughout the breeding season. It’s a peaceful sound, perhaps explaining why doves are considered a symbol of peace. Mourning doves are an ancient species known to have occurred in North America for at least 2 million years. They favor open habitat with trees for nesting. They feed upon grass seeds, berries, and buds. Meadows, fields, and pastures are where these sources of food abound. Mourning doves found plenty of favorable habitat when Pleistocene megafauna kept woodlands open with their foraging and trampling. Pleistocene-aged fossil and subfossil specimens of mourning doves have been found from California to Florida, and they likely had a continent-wide distribution for over a million years.
Mourning doves are the most common bird species in Georgia.
Non-native Eurasian collared doves occur in Georgia.
Common ground doves range into southern Georgia, but I have only seen them in Florida.
All doves and pigeons belong to the Columbidae family which includes 51 genera and 352 species. Some like the dodo and the passenger pigeon have gone extinct within the past few centuries. The Bermuda dove, an extinct subspecies of ground dove went extinct when rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age inundated their habitat. Scientists used to think pigeons and doves diverged from other birds during the Cretaceous when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, but more recent genetic studies suggest they diverged from other birds about 30 million years ago. Their closest living relatives are sand grouses and tropical turacos.
A genetic study places pigeons and doves between sand grouses and turacos. From the below referenced study by Stiller, et al.
Another genetic study determined pigeons and doves diverged from other bird species about 30 million years ago. From the below referenced study by Soares, et al.
3 species of pigeons and doves live in Augusta, Georgia where I reside. Mourning doves are common in my neighborhood, and recently I have been seeing non-native Eurasian collared doves, also known as ring-necked doves (Streptopelia decaocto). City pigeons, also known as rock doves (Columba livia) occur in more urban areas of the city where they nest on buildings. Common ground doves (Columbina passerina) range just south of Augusta. I did see some when I visited Bradenton, Florida a few years ago.
A new study surveyed 82 sites in the Pee Dee Region of the Carolinas, looking for Eurasian collared doves. They found 36 of the sites occupied by this species. 22 of the sites were urban and 14 were rural. The study indicates this species has been undercounted by traditional bird surveys. They are expanding into the piedmont from the coastal plain, a region that experiences more habitat loss.
References:
McNair, D
“Population Persistence and Landscape Use of Eurasian Collared Doves in North Pee Dee Region of the Carolinas”
Southeastern Naturalist 24 (1) 2025
Soares, A.; et. al.
“Complete Mitochodrial Genomes of Living and Extinct Pigeons Revises the Taxonomy of Columbiformes Radiation”
BMC Ecology and Evolution 12 (230) 2016
Stiller, J.; et. al.
“Complexity of Avian Evolution Revealed by Family-Level Genomes”
Nature 629 (8013) 2024
GeorgiaBeforePeople 