Image of Bartletts Bleeding Heart Pigeons

-- The name bleeding-heart comes from the patch of red on the breast of these birds. Otherwise they are grey above and paler buff below. Bleeding-heart doves live only in the Philippines. Many thousands of years ago there would have been just one species but rising seas levels isolated several populations, each on a different island group. These isolated populations evolved gradually into five separate species, all of which live in forested areas. Two of the five species live on moderately large islands and have evolved further into separate sub-species, divided by different environmental conditions.