August 2013
Pacific Northwest
Until a few days ago I thought we had three species of the family Columbidae here, doves and pigeons, those moderately large herbivorous birds with relatively short legs and small heads for their body size. All have pleasant low-pitched calls and coos. The terms "pigeon" and "dove" are somewhat arbitrary, very loosely distinguishing between bigger and smaller Columbids. The Columbids have some unique features, like drinking water head downward, and feeding their nestlings crop-milk, made from sloughed cells. They also include species that have been both extremely adaptable, spreading across the world, and other species quickly driven extinct, like the Dodo and the Passenger Pigeon.
These are all the doves/pigeons in my neighborhood (all photographed recently):
1. Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Mourning Doves are much more common east of the Cascades where there are huge agricultural fields to forage in, but Western Washington sees some of these doves in mixed habitats, especially lawns and shrubbery. I hear them more than see them. It's a lovely, haunting call.
Front (how about those hot pink legs!):
Back (how many shades of gray do you see?):
2. Band-Tailed Pigeon (
Patagioenas fasciata)
Our BandTailed pigeon is also native, but only in parts of the West. It is the largest of our local Columbids. Did you know this species is the most closely related to the extinct Passenger Pigeon? Genetic work is going on at this moment in preparation for a possible comeback of that iconic species. Whether that's a realistic or desirable project is another question.
More doves below....
3. Rock Pigeon or city pigeon (Columba livia), until recently called the Rock Dove.
The Rock Pigeon has been domesticated and bred into varieties for over 5000 years. It was deliberately introduced to North America in the 1600s for food - like all Columbids, it's very meaty, due to its relatively big flight muscles - and has now made itself at home across the continent as a feral bird. The Rock Pigeon does particularly well in urban settings, tall buildings being not that different operationally speaking for a bird accustomed to perching on cliffside ledges and caves. It's so adaptable, scavenging around human habitation, it can be a pest. Some people have a fondness for them though. There was outrage among their fans when the Mayor of London banished the famous pigeons of Trafalgar Square about 10 years ago. That was accomplished by prohibiting the sale of corn and hiring a falconer to patrol the Square, setting his Harris Hawk upon the birds.
Pigeons are delectable prey, and the resurgence of Peregrine Falcons has been at least partly attributed to the abundance of pigeons.
I see Rock Pigeons most often hanging around the village and under docks. Frequently at the marina several will dart up suddenly from below, flapping and chortling. In spite of being non-native, the rock pigeon is not considered invasive since it hasn't affected the populations of other pigeons, which prefer less urban and disturbed areas.
But the new dove!
I'd been hearing a familiar dove sound for a while, which took me back to a 3-month youth-hosteling, hitch-hiking trip I took through the British Isles at age 20...the cooing I was hearing sounded like England! A call distinctly different from our other three.....coo-COO coo...coo-COO coo. Then the bird showed up under my feeder.
4. Eurasian Collared Dove, (Streptopelia decaocto). This bird is native to South Asia, and was common in Middle East for centuries before moving northward into Europe in the 1930s. It became widespread in England by the 1950s, then later introduced to Western Hemisphere after a release in Bahamas in the 1970s. Somehow the Collared Doves made their way to Florida by the 1980s, and have spread across the country at a record rate.
See this gif animation from Project FeederWatch, showing their expansion in range. They were first reported in eastern Washington in 2000, and then west of the mountains by 2003. The bird books have not been updated yet to show this swift expansion across the continent.
They hang out in the nearby trees, and swoop in to gather seed dropped under the feeder. These are the only pics I have of a Collared Dove yet. I just tonight heard from a friend that she saw a pair of these doves at her farm 10 miles north of me.
So far, the Eurasian Collared Dove does not seem to be affecting native dove/pigeon populations. One reason might be that there is legal unlimited hunting allowed in many states, including Washington. Another is that each of these species uses a different habitat: the Rock Pigeon urban, the Mourning Dove open fields, the Band-Tailed Pigeon coniferous woods, and the Collared Dove prefers a mixed suburban environment. Related to this niche-concept is the idea I've read in several places (but I'm unable to find a primary source) that the Collared Dove is filling the niche left open after the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, in its time numbering in the billions. An objection to this explanation is that the Passenger Pigeon used hardwood forests primarily, clearly only part of where the Collared Dove is expanding.
A diary on Sunday has more on the Passenger Pigeon, including a powerful statement from Aldo Leopold in the comments section.
Anybody else seeing this fast spreading dove in your backyard? If so, when did you first notice it? And are you noticing any changes in other Columbid populations?
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Bonus pigeon, just because...
While staying in coastal Honduras for a few weeks this summer, I had a chance to see a whole new set of birds, including a White-Winged Dove in flight, and one White-Crowned Pigeon (Patagioenas leucocephala, formerly Columba leucocephala) which placidly sat and groomed in a tree just above me for quite a while. Unlike all the rest of these pigeons and doves, the White-Crowned feeds on fruits.
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"Green Diary Rescue" is Back!
"Green Diary Rescue" will be posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time on the Daily Kos front page. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.
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Time for your observations. What's up in your backyard these days?