Norfolk ground dove
species of bird
The Norfolk ground dove (Pampusana norfolkensis) is an extinct species of bird in the Columbidae, or pigeon family.
It was endemic to Norfolk Island, but became extinct due to introduced predators, disappearing within a few decades after European settlement in the late 18th century.
There are no preserved specimens of the Norfolk ground dove and the majority of unambiguous information about the species comes from the single illustration made by John Hunter for the book Collection of 100 original watercolours of Birds, Flowers, Fishes and Natives done during 1788–1790 in New South Wales, pl. no 89, with a description "Dove. Norfolk Island". In the past the scientific name Columba norfolciensis Latham (1801) was used to refer to this species; however, the name was also used to refer to the common emerald dove and the white-headed pigeon, and it cannot be confirmed that Latham's original description of Columba norfolciensis refers to the species illustrated by Hunter. The name Columba norfolciensis was suppressed by ICZN in 2010. Joseph Forshaw (2015) introduced a new scientific name for the Norfolk ground dove, Alopecoenas norfolkensis.
The name of the genus was changed in 2019 to Pampusana Bonaparte, 1855 as this name has priority.
The public source identifies “Norfolk ground dove” as species of bird. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Norfolk, ground and dove.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q902995. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1788, 1790, 1801 and 2010.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Norfolk ground dove” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.