The second bird that we chased yesterday was a reported Eurasian Collared-dove near Powassan, Ontario. I had never seen one before in Ontario (there are less than 20 records) and it was a code-4 bird. A photo was circulated of the bird, but it wasn't of very good quality. The bird appeared to be a collared-dove in the photo, anyways!
The location wasn't far off of our intended route to get home, so we swung by, arriving late afternoon.
The owners of the house and another birder, James Helmer, were present. The bird was pointed out roosting in a spruce tree in the front yard - success!
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| Ringed Turtle Dove - Powassan |
However, we started noticing some things which didn't look quite right from the bird. From the start, I noticed it was really pale, something that I assumed was a trick of the lighting (the bird was in an open spot in the depths of the spruce tree, appearing lighter than normal). Alan then mentioned that this bird was much too small to be a EUCD. A few other things that seemed off include the tail pattern from underneath and the bird's behaviour. It was extremely tame compared to the Mourning Doves in the area.
The bird appeared to be a Ringed Turtle-Dove, a domestic variety of the African Collared-Dove which is often kept in captivity. Unfortunately I can't count it for my year list, which is a shame since I got some pretty good photos of it too. Oh well!
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| Ringed Turtle Dove - Powassan |
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| Ringed Turtle Dove - Powassan |
I photographed this White-crowned Sparrow too, a species that I don't photograph too often.
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| White-crowned Sparrow - Powassan |
The dove was a bit of a let down, but like I said it was only added an hour or two to our travel time so no big loss. At any rate, I am now sitting at 332 species, 6 short of the record!
1 comment:
I had a Ringed Turtle Dove in my yard once. A nice try anyway!
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