[cobirds] African Collared-Doves, ID tutorial

Hello, Birders.

Here are some tips on recognizing African Collared-Doves in Colorado.

First, here is a photo of an African Collared-Dove from Lafayette, Boulder County, this morning, Thurs., Oct, 23:

http://tinyurl.com/AfCD-Colo

Such a bird could very easily be written off as a standard-issue Eurasian Collared-Dove. Although many "domestic" African Collared-Doves are distinctively pale, many "wild types" are as dark as Eurasians. The best field mark is the under-tail. From below, the entire tail complex (rectrices plus coverts) is uniformly pale on African Collared-Dove, distinct from the high-contrast under-tail pattern of the Eurasian Collared-Dove.

This photo of the same African Collared-Dove as depicted above shows the uniformly pale under-tail region:

http://tinyurl.com/AfCD-Colo-ventral

More important than visual differences are aural differences, and, fortunately, Streptopelia doves are noisy throughout the year. The most obvious difference is in song. Here is the song of the same African Collared-Dove as discussed above:

https://soundcloud.com/ted-floyd/african-collared-dove

Sorry, my neighborhood is noisy, and the bird wasn't particularly close when I made this recording.

And here is the song of a Eurasian Collared-Dove, also singing in the distance this morning in my noisy neighborhood:

https://soundcloud.com/ted-floyd/eurasian-collared-dove

In this recent post to COBirds, Nathan Pieplow neatly summarizes the differences in vocalizations between African and Eurasian collared-doves:

http://tinyurl.com/Pieplow-Streptopelia

Nathan mentions the African's descending cackle, distinct from the Eurasian's monosyllabic groan or sigh. In this video of our African Collared-Dove from Lafayette, you can hear that cackle as the bird lands on a fence:

http://tinyurl.com/AfCD-Colo-video

This video is instructive in other regards. First, note the bird's wing whistle. Can the wing-whistle of the African Collared-Dove be separated from that of the Eurasian Collared-Dove?--I think that's something for us to work out. Second, you might very briefly glimpse a second bird in this video: a much paler bird, one that matches the "fawn-colored variant adult" in The Sibley Guide. I have seen birds like this around Lafayette. I think these should be entered into eBird as "African Collared-Dove (Domestic type or Ringed Turtle-Dove)." However, I believe that the "wild type" individuals should be entered as "African Collared-Dove."

African Collared-Doves and their genes are here. Let's get out there and figure out how extensive this phenomenon is in Colorado!

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado

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