Common ground dove
Columbina passerina
Identification Tips:
- 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.