I tried to post this but I closed my Vox account earlier this year from lack of use and I didn't want to reregister:
Oooh, I love your birding blog! I saw a bird like this last week or so; the coloring was identical but I could discern no ring. So was it an unringed turtle dove? ;}
Possibly. The Ringed Turtle Dove is a domestic species and there have been several 'breeds' developed from it that have different colourings, so it could have been one of those, or even a hybrid. They can interbreed with both the mourning dove and the rock dove (city pigeon) I think.
Its colouring was exactly like the bird in your picture, but for the absence of the dark neck line. I don't recall the shape; it may have been that slender or just a titch bulkier. Could have been an abberation, or my eyes could have been bad, or it could have been a hybrid. We've had lots of mourning doves in my yard in the past. (However, lately there have been fewer. This makes me sad. Very, very sad. We used to have lots of blue jays, but Scott cut down the yaupon holly where they nested, so I can understand their absence. Our robin and cardinal numbers don't seem to have changed much; our house sparrows are about the same, but our house finches have really dropped off. Plenty of grackles still around, and I occasionally see a chickadee or a scissor-tailed flycatcher. Nope, I don't birdwatch!)
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Oooh, I love your birding blog! I saw a bird like this last week or so; the coloring was identical but I could discern no ring. So was it an unringed turtle dove? ;}
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Could have been an abberation, or my eyes could have been bad, or it could have been a hybrid. We've had lots of mourning doves in my yard in the past. (However, lately there have been fewer. This makes me sad. Very, very sad. We used to have lots of blue jays, but Scott cut down the yaupon holly where they nested, so I can understand their absence. Our robin and cardinal numbers don't seem to have changed much; our house sparrows are about the same, but our house finches have really dropped off. Plenty of grackles still around, and I occasionally see a chickadee or a scissor-tailed flycatcher. Nope, I don't birdwatch!)
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