We often see Mourning Doves and Eurasian Collared Doves in our yard here in Denver. This morning, a beautiful dove-like bird showed up and mystified me for many hours. There's the blue eye-ring that one would see on a Mourning Dove. There's a mark on the back of the neck, just like a Collared Dove. He's white, which suggests albinism. Perhaps he was tossed into the air at a wedding, and lost his way? Somebody help me identify this stunning bird.
Looks like a Mourning Dove from the long tail (have you got any pics showing the tail shape better?) - so not a released bird, but an individual with natural leucistic mutation.
Resin
This photo shows the tail pretty well. I ran across an article about the Barbary Dove. "Feral populations of Ringneck Doves establish themselves readily as a result of escapes from captivity, but they will merge with local populations of Collared Doves if they exist. visitors from Texas (Houston) and Colorado report that ring-necked doves are frequent visitors at their bird feeders. It has been observed that individual doves are unlikely to fare well. Ringneck Doves released to the wild cannot readily survive, as they are not equipped to live wild in most climates, have no natural fear of predators, and have never learned to distinguish "natural" foods."
That really sounds like my little visitor. He seems to be quite tame, and he's pretty clumsy in flight. We have many collared doves in residence, but they don't seem to be welcoming this guy as a friend. He is eating from seed that's landed on the ground, and perches sometimes on the birdbath, but doesn't drink. I'm not keen on captivity, but don't want to see this sweet bird waste away. Wonder if somebody would like to own a beautiful pet dove?
