It's a ringed turtle dove! how sweet!

Ok...interesting stuff:

10-21", like a pale whitish mourning dove but tail rounded rather than pointed. light tan w/ narrow, black collar on hind neck.

voice quite different from that of other doves in the west...a purring cooing, cuckcurrooo, uttered repeatedly by the male almost all year round. also nasal wheeze. lol

habitat: suburbs, gardens, parks

nesting: 2 white eggs on a flimsy stick platform in a tree

range: LA, California - escaped from captivity!!! (isnt' that wild?) Also established locally in S. Florida. This southern asian species has been a cagebird in europe and the orient for centuries. the small population in downtown LA has apparently not spread and is localized in a few parks and tree-lined streets.

Girl, I think you have a bit of a rarity on your hands!

ok, i really didn't even read your post...roflol. i just looked at the pic and started researching my (bazillion) bird books. is it more gray or more tannish?

Similar species:
Ringed Turtle Dove similar and is best separated by its different song. Eurasian Collared Dove has darker primaries, more obvious white in the neck, is larger with a longer tail and has a grayer plumage.

Ademink, have you considered decaf! :-)))

haaaaaaaaaaa

NEVER.

Ohh, too cool! It's so exciting when a new bird shows up and you got a picture too!

I just bought a subscription to the Birds of North AMerica website and this is what they say about Eurasion Collared-Doves....

One of many successful species introduced to the North American fauna in recent history, the Eurasian Collared-Dove was first released in the New World on New Providence, Bahamas, in the mid-1970s. Since its introduction, this dove has spread quickly across the North American continent. Reports of this bird continue at a rapid pace as the public is made aware of its presence
Fairly uniformly distributed in Florida, Georgia, and along the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Locally common in Alabama, Arkansas, sw. California, se. Colorado, and regions of Illinois, Kan-sas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, N. Carolina, Oklahoma, S. Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Reports of small numbers (1Â10 doves) from Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, N. Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, S. Dakota, and Wisconsin, as well as Saskatchewan, Canada. May occur in Mexico; all sw. Texas counties have reported observations. ... But not in Ohio :^(

There diet consists of ....
In North America, seeds and cereal grain offered from bird feeders and spilled from agriculture. Includes seeds of millet (Setaria spp.), sunflower (Helianthus spp.), milo (Sorghum spp.), wheat (Triticum spp.), and maize (Zea mays). Reported also to take spilled peanuts (Arachis hypogaea) from warehouse (Drennen 1997), fallen pecans (Carya illinoensis) crushed by automobiles on road (Steele 1998), crackers, and bread (CMR). Same male observed eating berries directly from Dahoon holly (Ilex cassine) every day for a week in early Aug 2001 in s. Florida (CMR). Flocks seen feeding on gravel in parking lots in Florida (CMR).

And thanks Brenda, I haven't had any new birds in awhile so it was fun to research something new!

hmmmm, who was here from florida that referred to them? another time way back..it tickles my memory. or, maybe it was chicka on a florida visit?

LOL @ nasal wheeze!! And I thought he liked me. :D Seriously, I haven't heard that sound yet.

Thanks so much for your help, ladies! (And Fig eye, for your most perceptive suggestions. LOL)

The perplexing thing is that it's coloring seemed like that of the RT dove (slightly paler, but mainly, not as pronounced in the dark area on the tail), but Cornell described their size as similar to the mourning dove, only heavier. They described the EC dove as quite larger than the mourning dove, as mine is most definitely. They also mentioned that the possibility of hybrids is not unheard of.

However, I didn't see him yesterday at all, so I hope that wherever he is, he's happy! I'll keep some feed on the ground for him, too....just in case.

Brenda

Yay! He's still here! And, according to a very nice neighbor lady, he has a mate!!!! Yeah, I'm excited. LOL I guess they're living in one of the big trees near her house.

I'm just SO relieved that "he's" not alone out there in the world. I sure hope they're able to have babies and begin a flock. I've christened them Adam and Eve. :D

Brenda

LOL at Adam and Eve, maybe you will have evetts next spring!

The mourning doves love safflower seed - I wonder if the EC would also?? Doesn't C3D have doves?

I'm going to check out some safflower seed today, but...they actually grow huge fields of it here. A buffet extraordinaire for the little darlings! I saw a small bag of it at Wallie World the other day for $7-something.

Maybe it's time to take the flashlight and make a midnight run. :D

C3D! I hope she posts soon. I miss her good energy. :)

Brenda

Brenda, I know this is an old post but Ive been reading back a few pages and im excited for you to. We have these and my mom just loves them sooooo much. Its the first year for us having them and im wondering are they still with you? Did they make it with you or moved on? We have about 6 right now and i have never seen them before this year. I live in Tennessee and i was wondering if yours are still there. Mine are large just like your picture and they love to eat off the ground and chase the mourning doves around and coo and make weird noises. They are pretty neat characters.-------------bonnie

Bonnie, the 2 "lovebirds" are definitely still with us! Every morning, I hear them make that weird, guttural sort of "cahhh", and I always think, "Hmmm, crows?" Nope, that's the noise they make when flying! I don't hear them coo very often, but when they do, it's like Christmas for me! :D

Ours don't visit the yard to feed at this point, and I think it's because we have a phone line and my (long-gone) dog Red's old runner strung across it. They aren't very agile flyers or, more importantly, landers (roosters?), and the couple of times one has tried it, it looked very awkward. LOL They DO visit the creek often to drink, though, since that's away from the lines.

Congrats on your visitors, too!! I sure hope they stick around for you. They really are a delight to have around.

Brenda

Same dilema here in Southern Oregon: It looks like a mourning dove only heavier and with a fan tail instead of a pointed tail. The tail has a wide white band on the end of like a band-tail pigeon but, again, it's the buffy color of a mourning dove. The call is in between the band-tail and the mourning dove too: It's, "Who-cooks....you?" without the third syllable of the band-tail and without the pitch change of the mourning dove.

Can anyone confirm species or variant?

Could be an escaped Ring-neck Dove. Those are captive bred doves for centuries and are not native to any country.

If you post a photo it might help but I *think* that's who you have ... if it isn't your basic Rock Dove.

The White-winged and White-fronted are not in Oregon.