Ramphiculus is a genus of fruit doves in the family Columbidae. They are restricted to the Philippines and Sulawesi apart from the Jambu fruit dove that occurs on the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Borneo, and the black-chinned fruit dove which extends north to Taiwan. These are colourful frugivorous doves that are found in forests and woodlands.
Taxonomy The genus Ramphiculus was introduced in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte who listed two species but did not specify a type species. In 1855 the English zoologist George Gray designated the type as Ptilonopus occipitalis Gray GR, 1844, the yellow-breasted fruit dove. The genus name is a diminutive of the Ancient Greek ῥαμφη/rhamphē meaning "bill".
The species placed in this genus were formerly placed in the genus Ptilinopus. A molecular genetic study published in 2014 found that the fruit dove genus Ptilinopus was paraphyletic. In a step towards creating monophyletic genera, two species were moved from Ptilinopus to Megaloprepia and nine species were moved from Ptilinopus to Ramphiculus.
Species The genus contains 9 species. Image Common name Scientific name DistributionYellow-breasted fruit doveRamphiculus occipitalisPhilippines (except Palawan group and Sulu Archipelago)Flame-breasted fruit doveRamphiculus marcheimontane forest of Luzon (northern Philippines)Cream-breasted fruit doveRamphiculus merrilliLuzon group (north Philippines)Red-eared fruit doveRamphiculus fischerimontane SulawesiJambu fruit doveRamphiculus jambupeninsular Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Borneo and western Java Oberholser's fruit doveRamphiculus gularislowland forest of SulawesiBanggai fruit doveRamphiculus subgularisPeleng and Banggai Islands, in Banggai Island (off eastern Sulawesi)Sula fruit doveRamphiculus mangoliensisSula Islands (Taliabu, Seho, and Mangole)Black-chinned fruit doveRamphiculus leclancheriPhilippines and Taiwan
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