Ducula david Balouet & Olson, 1987:769
David’s imperial pigeon, David’s imperial-pigeon, 'Uvea imperial pigeon, Steadman's imperial pigeon
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Conservation Status
Extinct
Distribution & Habitat
Eua, Tonga, & Wallis (='Uvea) Island
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Balouet, Jean Christophe and Olson, Storrs L. (1987). A new extinct species of giant pigeon (Columbidae: Ducula) from archeological deposits on Wallis (Uvea) Island, South Pacific. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 100(4): 769-775.
Other references:
Faurby, Søren, Matthews, Tom J., Triantis, Kostas A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2026). Quantifying the unrecorded loss of avian phylogenetic diversity. Ecography 2026: e08267. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08267
Hume, Julian Pender and Walters, Michael. (2012). Extinct Birds. London: T & AD Poyser. 544 pp.
Matthews, Thomas J., Triantis, Kostas A., Wayman, Joseph P., Martin, Thomas E., Hume, Julian P., Cardoso, Pedro, Faurby, Søren, Mendenhall, Chase D., Dufour, Paul, Rigal, François, Cooke, Rob, Whittaker, Robert J., Pigot, Alex L., Thébaud, Christophe, Jørgensen, Maria Wagner, Benavides, Eva, Soares, Filipa C., Ulrich, Werner, Kubota, Yasuhiro, Sadler, Jon P., Tobias, Joseph A. and Sayol, Ferran. (2024). The global loss of avian functional and phylogenetic diversity from anthropogenic extinctions. Science 386(6717): 55-60. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk7898 [Supplementary Materials; Dryad dataset; Zenodo codeset]
Matthews, Thomas J., Wayman, Joseph P., Cardoso, Pedro, Sayol, Ferran, Hume, Julian P., Ulrich, Werner, Tobias, Joseph A., Soares, Filipa C., Thébaud, Christophe, Martin, Thomas E. and Triantis, Kostas A. (2022). Threatened and extinct island endemic birds of the world: Distribution, threats and functional diversity. Journal of Biogeography 49(11): 1920-1940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14474 [Appendix S1 (.docx); Appendix S2 (.pdf)]
Sayol, Ferran, Steinbauer, Manuel J., Blackburn, Tim M., Antonelli, Alexandre and Faurby, Søren. (2020). Anthropogenic extinctions conceal widespread evolution of flightlessness in birds. Science Advances 6(49): eabb6095. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb6095 [Supplementary Material (Data File S1)]
Steadman, David W. (1989). New species and records of birds (Aves: Megapodiidae, Columbidae) from an archaeological site on Lifuka, Tonga. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 102: 537-552. [Ducula cf. david from Lifuka, so referrable either to this species or a closely allied taxon]
Steadman, David W. (1993). Biogeography of Tongan birds before and after human impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 90(3): 818-822. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.90.3.818
Steadman, David W. (1995). Prehistoric Extinctions of Pacific Island Birds: Biodiversity Meets Zooarchaeology. Science 267(5201): 1123-1131.
Steadman, David W. (2006). Extinction and Biogeography of Tropical Pacific Birds. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. xiv + 594 pp.
Steadman, David W., Pregill, Gregory K. and Burley, David V. (2002). Rapid prehistoric extinction of iguanas and birds in Polynesia. PNAS 99(6): 3673-3677.
Thibault, Jean-Claude, Cibois, Alice and Meyer, Jean-Yves. (2015). Birds of Uvea (Wallis), Futuna and Alofi islands (South-West Pacific): an update. Notornis 62: 30-37.
Tyrberg, Tommy. (2009). Holocene avian extinctions, pp. 63-106. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Worthy, Trevor H. (2001). A giant flightless pigeon, gen.et sp. nov.,and a new species of Ducula (Aves: Columbidae) from Quatenary deposits in Fiji. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 31: 763-794. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014223.2001.9517673
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/8159/ducula-david-steadmans-imperial-pigeon