Dove observation (1 Viewer)

I'm just here to share one observation.

I grew up in CO with Mourning Doves. They have the gentle, mourning coo sound. They are petite, with no ring on the back of their neck.

Flash forward to today. There has been a larger dove, with a more obnoxious call, and they have a ring on the back of their neck. Several years ago I looked them up and they were some other species (invasive?).

Observation this summer, for the first time: I've been watching a male(s) on top of a fence, puffing his neck and bobbing toward a female (she always flies when he gets too close, of course).

Anyway, what seems to be a new observation for me, is that both of them are the larger doves with the ring on the back of their necks but he is making the gentle mourning coo of the Mourning Dove. He is not making that obnoxious call.

After reading about those Canadian birds changing their tune from west to east, I wondered if the invasive dove was picking up the sound of the Mourning Dove?

I'm not a birder and just thought I'd pass this on in case it was of some interest to someone.

The one with the 'obnoxious' call is Collared Dove, from Europe & Asia.

PS Welcome to Birdforum!

Nutcracker said:

The one with the 'obnoxious' call is Collared Dove, from Europe & Asia.

PS Welcome to Birdforum!

Click to expand...

Is it possible they are starting to use the Mourning Dove Coo? Or did they always have that in their repertoire?

Never heard it from Collared Doves over here. I guess it isn't impossible, but does seem very unlikely - doves don't generally imitate other species, they have very stereotyped, non-variable calls. I'd think more likely there was a Mourning Dove calling from somewhere out of view, while you had Collared Doves in view.

Collared Doves have 2 basic calls: The repetitive coo-COO-coo...coo-COO-coo call, and a kind of higer pitched rrrraaaa! sound (bad description) as they take off on a display flight.

I doubt if they would change their call to anything significantly different, so if you are hearing a Mourning Dove-like call, I think it must be coming from somewhere else

When I first observed this, I thought the same thing, especially since I was sitting inside, looking out a window. When I pointed it out to my wife, she said it was probably a Mourning Dove making the noise off to left and out of view.

Then, three consecutive days we were sitting on the back patio and watched it occur about 30 feet away. Three things make me think it is the invasive dove doing the local dove sound:

1. The coos were in time/beat with the males bobbing approach to the female;
2. The sound seemed to be coming from the bobbing male;
3. The Mourning Dove cooing only occurred while the bobbing was going on. In other words, we didn't hear it immediately before or after the bobbing.

I suppose a Mourning Dove could have been watching the invasive dove and was "commenting" on the display in time with it.

Anyway, we'll try to get it on video next time we are have lunch on the patio. But you know how that goes . . .

Never actually observed Collared Doves, and definitely not an expert on dove breeding habits, but could it possibly be a hybrid? I.e., it has both Mourning and Collared Dove genes, so it shows the collar, but it grew up learning the Mourning Dove call? I haven't personally heard of or seen this happen, and I'm not even entirely sure what a hybrid would look like (maybe a weaker neck band and spotting on the wings?) I don't know, just a thought. It would be interesting if you could catch it on video.

Here's a couple of eBird checklists with photos of Eurasian Collared-Dove x Mourning Dove hybrids
https://ebird.org/checklist/S10838974
https://ebird.org/checklist/S43596680

They differ slightly in appearance.

Microtus said:

Here's a couple of eBird checklists with photos of Eurasian Collared-Dove x Mourning Dove hybrids
https://ebird.org/checklist/S10838974
https://ebird.org/checklist/S43596680

They differ slightly in appearance.

Click to expand...

That's a fairly seriously weird thing to get! The second one I'm not totally convinced isn't just a Collared Dove, but the first bird does look worryingly convincing. I've never even heard of a Columba x Streptopelia hybrid, and those two genera are rather more closely related to each other than to Zenaida. Actually, pigeon hybrids seem pretty rare altogether.

I've seen photos of captive-bred domestic pigeon (Columba livia) x (can't remember whether European or African) collared dove hybrids.

I agree with you that that second supposed Mourning x Collared hybrid looks pretty much just like a slightly tatty Collared though. The first... not sure, but it might just be an aberrant Mourning, or maybe a hybrid with Z. asiatica?