Cinnamon Imperial Pigeon

Open encyclopedia reference

The cinnamon-bellied imperial pigeon or cinnamon imperial pigeon (Ducula basilica) is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to the northern Moluccas. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

The cinnamon-bellied imperial pigeon was formally described in 1854 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte from a specimen collected in Gilolo now Halmahera, the largest island in the Maluku Islands. He coined the current binomial name Ducula basilica. The specific epithet basilica is Latin for "magnificent" or "splendid". The cinnamon-bellied imperial pigeon was at one time considered as a subspecies of the purple-tailed imperial pigeon (Ducula rufigaster).

Two subspecies are recognised:

D. b. basilica Bonaparte, 1854 – north Maluku Islands

D. b. obiensis (Hartert, 1898) – Obi Islands (central Maluku Islands)

Some ornithologists treat D. b. obiensis as a separate species, the rusty imperial pigeon (Ducula obiensis).

Wikipedia contributors, Cinnamon-bellied imperial pigeon; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:48:31.753020+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Ducula basilica Bonaparte, 1854

Name authority

Bonaparte, 1854

Common name

Cinnamon Imperial Pigeon

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Columbiformes

Family

Columbidae

Genus

Ducula

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderColumbiformes
10. familyColumbidae
11. subfamilyRaphinae
12. genusDucula Hodgson, 1836
13. speciesDucula basilica Bonaparte, 1854

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Ducula. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 279 records assigned to Columbidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=177364 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:37Z96. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.