Beak of the Week - Eurasian Collared-Dove

Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

Family: Columbidae

Next time you go out on a walk around your neighborhood and pass a Eurasian Collared-Dove perched on a powerline, you might want to hold on to your wallet. We see these pale, chunky birds in the U.S. partly because of a 1970s pet store burglary in the Bahamas. And although they may look shifty, this robbery was the doing of humans, not doves. After escaping from the pet store, they made it to Florida by the early 1980s. From there, Eurasian Collared-Doves were free to spread across North America, and spread they did. These birds are now found up to Southern Canada, down into Mexico, across the Caribbean, northern South America, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Japan, and Asia. Granted, these invasions are not all due to burglarized pet stores. That’s quite a journey from their native lands in Europe and Asia.

Even though this is an introduced species, so far there are no proven negative effects on related native birds like the Mourning Dove. Eurasian Collared-Doves are much larger and paler than Mourning Doves and have a broad tail rather than a tapered, diamond tail. They are most easily identified by their partial black neck ring, or “collar.” Eurasian Collared-Doves also lack the white wing bands and neat white tail rim of the White-winged Dove.

These birds live in the Houston area year-round, so we get to see (and hear) them every day. They are usually perched on posts and powerlines like other doves where they sing their three-part coo-COO-coo. They are commonly seen in urban and suburban areas but will also hang around grain farms and silos. While they may be very common and non-native, Eurasian Collared-Doves have an interesting and surprisingly recent history of invasion.

By Phoebe Honscheid, Conservation Technician, Houston Audubon
📸 Photos by Greg Lavaty

---

Visit our Bird Gallery to read about other Texas birds!

Comments

How to DIY a Dripper for birds

Are you running out of home projects to keep busy during the quarantine? Here’s one my hubby made for me that you can try: a DYI Dripper. I’ve long wanted a bird dripper to complement my yard’s wildlife habitat, and with spring migrants on the way, I was keen to provide a drip that will attract new birds that don’t visit feeders. I had a problem though. There is no water line or power source near my feeders. The idea of stringing a hose or wire across the driveway just isn’t practical. Enter the engineer. My husband thought about the location and the limitations for a bit, and came up with the concept of sourcing water for a dripper off the sprinkler system. By using a toilet tank that fills every time the sprinklers run, water can be constantly available for the drip. I nixed the idea of a toilet tank sitting in my yard though, so he made some aesthetic modifications by installing a toilet tank float inside a 5 gallon bucket hidden inside a custom wooden box with a handsome copper p...

Beak of the Week - Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron ( Nyctanassa violacea ) Family: Ardeidae Our Beak of the Week is the official Bird of Houston , the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron! This seemingly hunch-backed bird can be a difficult one to spot. Both species of North American night-herons, yellow-crowned and black-crowned, forage mainly at night and spend most of the day hidden among branches near a body of water. These two birds can be differentiated easily by their plumage on and around their head. The most obvious difference is stated in their names: Yellow-crowned Night-Herons have a yellow crown and Black-crowned Night-Herons have a black crown. But that’s not the only difference! Yellow-crowned Night-Herons have a black head and face with a distinct thick white cheek stripe, whereas Black-crowned Night-Herons have a black head with gray on their face that extends down the whole front of the body. Yellow-crowned Night Herons also have a gray front and neck, but it contrasts greatly with their facial patter...

Beak of the Week - Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Ruby-throated Hummingbird ( Archilochus colubris ) Family: Trochilidae Did you know that Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are able to fly in all 6 directions with wing beats of 53 times per a second? Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are bright emerald or golden-green on the back and crown with gray-white underparts. Males have a brilliant iridescent red throat while females and immatures have fine, dark throat streaking. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds feed on the nectar of red or orange tubular flowers as well as at hummingbird feeders and sometimes tree sap. Hummingbirds also catch insects in midair or pull them out of spider webs. In preparation for their migration, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds double their weight from 3 grams to over 6 grams prior to departing. In the fall, millions of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds will pass through Texas on their migration to points south of the border with many crossing the Gulf of Mexico in a single flight. They arrive from breeding grounds as far away as Nova Scotia...

Houston Audublog

Search This Blog