These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres.

In colloquial English, the smaller species tend to be called "doves", and the larger ones "pigeons",[2] although the distinction is not consistent,[2] and there is no scientific separation between them.

118 species (34%) are at risk,[4] and 13 are extinct,[5] with the most famous examples being the dodo, a large, flightless, island bird, and the passenger pigeon, that once flocked in the billions.

[8] Columbiformes is one of the most diverse non-passerine clades of neoavians, and its origins are in the Cretaceous[9] and the result of a rapid diversification at the end of the K-Pg boundary.

[11][12][14][15][16][17][18][19] The name 'Columbidae' for the family was first used by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1819.

[23][24][25] A 2024 paper on the systematics and nomenclature of the dodo and the solitaire from Young and colleagues also provided an overview of columbid family-group nomina.

[22] A 2025 paper on the molecular phylogenetic placement of the Cuban endemic blue-headed quail-dove from Oswald and colleagues found the species to be sister to Columbinae, as opposed to being a columbine or a raphine as previous authors have suggested in the past.

[citation needed] The genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits in France, but while it was long believed to be a pigeon,[28] it is now considered a sandgrouse.

[29] Fragmentary remains of a probably "ptilinopine" Early Miocene pigeon were found in the Bannockburn Formation of New Zealand and described as Rupephaps;[29] "Columbina" prattae from roughly contemporary deposits of Florida is nowadays tentatively separated in Arenicolumba, but its distinction from Columbina/Scardafella and related genera needs to be more firmly established (e.g. by cladistic analysis).

[36] In a series of experiments in 1975 by Dr. Mark B. Friedman, using doves, their characteristic head bobbing was shown to be due to their natural desire to keep their vision constant.

[39] Columbidae have unique body feathers, with the shaft being generally broad, strong, and flattened, tapering to a fine point, abruptly.

[50] The largest extant species are the crowned pigeons of New Guinea,[51] which are nearly turkey-sized, with lengths of 66–79 cm (2.17–2.59 ft) and weights ranging 1.8–4 kg (4.0–8.8 lb).

[55][56] The extinct, flightless dodo is the largest columbid to have ever existed, with a height of about 62.6–75 cm (24.6–29.5 in), and a range of suggested weights from 10.2–27.8 kilograms (22–61 lb), although the higher estimates are thought to be based on overweight birds.

[44][61][62] The dwarf fruit dove, which may measure as little as 13 cm (5.1 in) long, has a marginally smaller total length than any other species from this family.

[44] Pigeons and doves are distributed everywhere on Earth, having adapted to most terrestrial habitats available on the planet, except for the driest areas of the Sahara Desert, Antarctica and its surrounding islands, and the high Arctic.

[67] This species had a large natural distribution from Britain and Ireland to northern Africa, across Europe, Arabia, Central Asia, India, the Himalayas and up into China and Mongolia.

[67] A 2020 study found that the east coast of the United States includes two pigeon genetic megacities, in New York and Boston, and observes that the birds do not mix together.

[77] Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests, often using sticks, other vegetable matter, and other debris, which may be placed on trees, on rocky ledges, or on the ground, depending on species.

[81] Although habitat loss was a contributing factor, the species is thought to have been massively over-hunted, being used as food for slaves and, later, the poor, in the United States throughout the 19th century.

[85] Various conservation techniques are employed to prevent these extinctions, including laws and regulations to control hunting pressure, the establishment of protected areas to prevent further habitat loss, the establishment of captive populations for reintroduction back into the wild (ex situ conservation), and the translocation of individuals to suitable habitats to create additional populations.

Domestic pigeons have long been a part of human culture; doves were important symbols of the goddesses Innana, Asherah, and Aphrodite, and revered by the early Christian, Islamic and Jewish religions.