Has long‐distance flight ability been maintained by pigeons in highly insular habitats?

A unique study challenges the notion that island land birds universally lose their long-distance dispersal ability, demonstrating that pigeons can maintain this capability even under highly insular conditions. Researchers compared two subspecies of Japanese wood pigeon (Columba janthina) across different archipelagos in the north-western Pacific Ocean, finding that one subspecies exhibited wing morphology better suited for long-distance flight than the other. Genetic analyses revealed sufficient gene flow among islands within each subspecies' habitat, with no isolation by distance, and estimated their divergence time at approximately 0.67 million years ago. This exceptional case suggests that maintaining dispersal ability may be a viable strategy in island systems, contrary to the global trend of reduced dispersiveness in island birds.

Tsujimoto, D., Ando, H., Suzuki, H., Horikoshi, K., Nakajima, N., Suyama, Y., Matsuo, A., Fujii, C., & Isagi, Y. (2022). Has long‐distance flight ability been maintained by pigeons in highly insular habitats? Journal of Biogeography, 50(1), 235–246. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14529