dove help (1 Viewer)

[mdmoshier2]

I took this picture 1 month ago at the Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary in Quintana, TX. merlin keeps calling it a mourning dove but it is not. the markings on the face and the darker wings with sp[ots are throwing me off. I dint know if it is a hybrid, immature or what, but is it not matching up with any of the pictures I have looked at. please help with its ID. Thank you

 

[Butty]

Being in a zoo with that name, of course it could be from anywhere in the Americas - but, actually, I think it is a (very) juvenile mourning dove. The tail-, cheek- and wing-patterns are right (juvs have spottier coverts?), the dark around the neck is feather-bases, and the little white streaks on the chin/face are feathers still in pin. (Plus it looks like a Zenaida dove and I don't see a better one to match than mourning dove.)