Nebraskaland Magazine
My recent post about White-winged Doves generated some excellent feedback. The feedback included a few additional White-winged Dove reports. It became apparent, however, there is some uncertainty regarding whether some doves people are observing are indeed White-winged Doves or something else. The something else seems to typically be Eurasian Collared-Doves, which is a non-native species that arrived in the state in 1997 and rapidly increased and expanded its range. Eurasian Collared-Doves are now common and even abundant in many areas of Nebraska. As I stated, White-winged Doves are still quite rare in Nebraska. I did receive several very nice photos of a White-winged Dove that visited Mike Darbro’s residence in Central City. Not only does this blog provide the opportunity to share Mike’s handy work, but also an opportunity to show differences between White-winged Doves and Eurasian Collared-Doves.
Hopefully the information provided here familiarizes you with Nebraska’s dove species. Additional resources that will inform bird identification can be found all over the internet. For example, profiles about Eurasian Collared-Dove can be found here and here. Profiles about White-winged Dove can be found here and here. Next time you see a dove, take a few moments and try to identify it to species by noting key field marks. As stated in my earlier post on the topic, if you identify a White-winged Dove in Nebraska, drop me a line at (joel.jorgensen@nebraska.gov).
Many thanks to Mike Darbro for permission to share his photos.
Good birding!
