'may have originated from a colonisation event from South-East Asia, probably arriving when sea levels were lower over the Bering Strait, prior to the Pleistocene.
The analysis also showed three clear Nearctic clades, probably indicating at least two separate colonisation events. However, the most basal clade in the Columbidae, the Columbina Ground Doves, is American, and it is therefore possible that pigeons and doves may have originated in the Americas, dispersed to Eurasia, and then dispersed back again. '
May have ... could have ... probably ... we now think ...
All will be presented and accepted as irrefutable fact, until some conflicting fact emerges.
We have a small flock of birds that roost and live around my backyard that don’t seem to be 100% common dove or pigeon. They are bigger than common doves but don’t look like the pigeons I used to feed in Chattanooga when I was a kid.