[MDOsprey] Re: Exotic Dove
William Leigh (tern@visuallink.com)
Sat, 9 Oct 1999 23:00:26 -0700
Hello birders,
I found an exotic dove today while looking for the perfect pumpkin at a
local
farm here in Winchester Va. I checked my Photographic Guide to Birds of the
World, by Dr. Andrew Gosler, and the bird most closely resembling the dove
I saw is a Diamond Dove on page 298. There are some differences though ...
the bird I saw had an all white tail and the upperbody color was a much
paler blue ....however the proportions are right on the money and the big
red eye ring looks right.
Description of the bird I saw is as follows:
- Small dovelike bird with pale blue upperparts and a long thin all white
tail.
- Big complete pinkish red eye ring.
- Small dark black line on wing when folded....I was not sure if this was
the primaries or not.
- underparts pale whitish gray.
- Bill was I believe pink at base and dark at tip. Didn't have a pencil and
paper at the time, so some details are foggy.
- There were some faint dark striations on the wing ....and the wings
appeared slightly darker blue than rest of bird.
- Tiny bird whose tail length was= to length of rest of bird my guess is the
bird
was about the size of a thin bluebird or perhaps a thin house sparrow.
If anyone has any ideas on this .....would be sort neat to put a name on to
this out of place bird.
Ps. the farm is called Hill High Farm and is located just West of Winchester
off
Cedar Grade Road. The farmer stated that he has seen the bird several times
to date.
William Leigh
Winchester Va
tern@visuallink.com