I have little doubt that these sweeties are Mourning Doves, but I've never seen one with such a reddish tint to the breast. Is this considered to be a yellow variant?
Mourning Dove with rosy breast
Check out xanthochroism - a rare mutation with excess yellow / red pigments.
Resin
When I look at your doves, I see a male on the right and female on the left.
From Wikipedia, referencing the National Geographic Complete Birds of North America...
"The adult male has bright purple-pink patches on the neck sides, with light pink coloring reaching the breast. The crown of the adult male is a distinctly bluish-grey color."
I wish more field guides would point this out as I looked at a couple on my shelf, others on line and they show the genders as being the same. They are not. I never thought to add National Geographic to my collection of field guides, but maybe it is worth it after all. :)
Post a Reply to this Thread
More Bird Identification Threads
-
Female and Juvenile?
started by jimenez
last post by jimenezMar 23, 20240Mar 23, 2024