Friday, March 16, 2012

Doves

Many people confuse the three varieties of doves we have here - the Euro-Collared, the White Winged, and the Mourning doves. The two here are more similar than they are to its cousin, the Mourning Dove. I managed to get a good side-by-side comparison shot of two of them this morning: the Euro-Collared and the White Winged doves.

Euro-Collared Dove (L) and White Winged Dove (R).
It's easy to see the differences here. While both have red eyes and very similar overall coloring, the Euro-Collared dove lacks the white edge of the wing, as well as the vivid blue "eyeliner" of its counterpart. The White Winged dove only has a small black cheek mark, as opposed to the collar around the back of the neck. These differ from the Mourning Dove that is characterized by its general coverage of black spots. From my observations, the Euro-Collared dove emits a kind of a low-key "scream" right before, or as it lands on its perch. The White Winged dove is generally silent as it lands. Both doves do have the characteristic "coo-ing" sounds.
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1 comment:

  1. I'm an old farm boy from and in ILLINOIS. I'm interested in raising some unique does similar to raising regular pigeons in a farm barn. I've read where the unusual does usually are within one kilometer of people & livestock and prefer trees for nesting sites. I'm familiar with the very crude stick nests of ordinary mourning doves. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Norm Koerner 217-787-8795

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