Common ground dove Columbina passerina

Identification Tips:

• Length: 5.5 inches
• Small, chunky dove
• Black-tipped orange bill
• Gray-brown back and upperwings
• Breast and head scaly
• Black spotting on wing coverts
• Cinnamon inner webs of primaries visible in flight, and occasionally at rest
• Cinnamon wing linings
• Short tail is slightly rounded at tip
• Tail is brown centrally, with black edges and white corners
• Juvenile similar to adult female

Adult male:

• Pinkish-buff head, neck and breast
• Pinkish unscaled belly
• Blue hindneck and nape

Adult female:

• Pale gray head, neck, nape, and breast
• Gray unscaled belly

Similar species:

Juvenile Mourning Doves are also scaly, but are longer-tailed, lack cinnamon primaries and tend to be more extensively scaly. Inca Dove is longer-tailed, scaly on the belly and back and lacks spotting on coverts Rare Ruddy Ground-Dove lacks scaliness and has black underwing coverts.

Length and wingspan from: Robbins, C.S., Bruun, B., Zim, H.S., (1966). Birds of North America. New York: Western Publishing Company, Inc.