The Réunion Pink Pigeon (Nesoenas duboisi, but see below) is an extinct species of pigeon that formerly lived on the Mascarene island of Réunion

Réunion

Réunion is a French island with a population of about 800,000 located in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar, about south west of Mauritius, the nearest island.Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France...

. It is known from the description of a rusty-red pigeon given by Dubois in 1674 and a single subfossil

Subfossil

Subfossil refers to remains whose fossilization process is not complete, either for lack of time or because the conditions in which they were buried were not optimal for fossilization....

 humerus

Humerus

The humerus is a long bone in the arm or forelimb that runs from the shoulder to the elbow....

 that agrees with that of the Pink Pigeon

Pink Pigeon

The Pink Pigeon, Columba mayeri, is a species of Columbidae endemic to Mauritius, and is now very rare. It was on the brink of extinction in 1991 when only 10 individuals remained, but its numbers have increased due to the efforts of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust since 1977...

 of Mauritius in generic characteristics, except being slightly longer. Also, Dubois' reference to the bill being red at the base and the eyes being surrounded by a red ring suggest that this species was closely allied to the Mauritus taxon.

Its genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Nesoenas

Nesoenas

Nesoenas is a bird genus in the pigeon and dove family, Columbidae. It is often included with the typical turtle-doves in Streptopelia or the typical pigeons . By those wo accepted it, it was usually treated as monotypic, containing only the Pink Pigeon Nesoenas is a bird genus in the pigeon and...

was often synonymized with Columba

Columba (genus)

The large bird genus Columba comprises a group of medium to large stout-bodied pigeons, often referred to as the typical pigeons. The terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used indiscriminately for smaller and larger Columbidae, respectively...

in the past, but more recently it has been synonymized with Streptopelia

Streptopelia

Streptopelia is a genus of birds in the dove family. These are mainly slim, small to medium-sized species. The upperparts tend to be pale brown, and the underparts are often a shade of pink. Many have a characteristic black-and-white patch on the neck, and monotonous cooing songs.The heartland of...

. As the Pink Pigeon

Pink Pigeon

The Pink Pigeon, Columba mayeri, is a species of Columbidae endemic to Mauritius, and is now very rare. It was on the brink of extinction in 1991 when only 10 individuals remained, but its numbers have increased due to the efforts of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust since 1977...

 and the Madagascar Turtle Dove cannot be firmly placed in either of these two genera but apparently represent a distinct lineage that diverged early, probably from the ancestor of Streptopelia, it seems (at least for the time being) to be best to separate them again in Nesoenas. This restores the genus of the Réunion Pink Pigeon to the one it was originally described under.

There seem to have been one to three other species of columbid on Réunion (not counting the invalidated "Réunion Solitaire"). Bontekoe

Willem Ysbrandtsz Bontekoe

Willem Ysbrandtszoon Bontekoe was a skipper in the Dutch East India Company , who made only one voyage for the company . He became widely known because of the journal of his adventures that was published in 1646 under the title Journael ofte gedenckwaerdige beschrijvinge van de Oost-Indische reyse...

 mentioned ramiers (doves) with blue wings in 1619 as being abundant; apparently a species of Alectroenas. Dubois, on the other hand, referred to no less than four kinds of pigeons: ramiers, tourterelles (turtle doves) and two kinds of pigeon, one rusty red - the present species -, the other slate grey. Either the ramiers or the tourterelles of Dubois could refer to a local population of the Madagascar Turtle Dove, possibly an extinct subspecies, which is known from one subfossil humerus and one ulna

Ulna

The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm, the other being the radius. It is prismatic in form and runs parallel to the radius, which is shorter and smaller. In anatomical position The ulna is one of the two long bones in the forearm, the other being the radius. It is prismatic in form...

. The slate-grey bird or the ramiers, respectively, seem to be the birds described by Bontekoe. What the remaining form - the tourterelles or the slate-grey pigeons, respectively - might have been is completely unresolvable at this time, although the possibility of it being a relative of the Rodrigues Grey Pigeon

Rodrigues Grey Pigeon

The Rodrigues Grey Pigeon is an extinct species of pigeon formerly endemic to the Mascarene island of Rodrigues. It is known from a subfossil sternum and some other bones, and the descriptions of Leguat and Julien Tafforet . It was a bird the size of a Tambourine Dove and colored slate grey...

 cannot be entirely discounted.

Extinction

Since the Réunion Pink Pigeon was only mentioned explicitly by Dubois, little can be said about its extinction. The last reports of native pigeons were by Père Bernardin in 1687 and by Guillaume Houssaye in 1689, although the Alectroenas may have existed for a somewhat longer time. Feuilley in 1705 mentioned that all native pigeons were extinct; it seems likely that introduced rats and cats, combined with excessive hunting, were the causes of the birds' extinction.