The Confusing Dove Situation

December 30, 2014Photographyart, arts & design, bird, bird watching, birding, birds, CoolPix, dove, hawaii, nikon, Nikon P600, oahu, photographyJ.J. Springer 4 comments

Spotted Dove (large) vs Zebra Dove (smaller)

Spotted Dove

Zebra Dove

Darker Zebra Dove

Hawaii has a few more dove species (Mourning, Rock, Spotted, and Zebra) than San Diego does. Although you can see Spotted Doves here, I haven’t had the pleasure yet so I was excited to see them in O’ahu.

I was struck by how much smaller the Zebra Doves are compared to a Spotted Dove (which is similar in size to a Mourning Dove or Pigeon). You can see in the pictures above the size difference. Man, the zebras were everywhere! It’s like Hawaii’s pigeon (although it has those too). The zebras also varied a lot in shade (see above pics) which surprised me.

4 thoughts on “The Confusing Dove Situation”

Derek Springer

December 30, 2014 at 9:58 am

Doves: annoying wherever you go 🙂

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1. J.J. Springer
  
  December 30, 2014 at 1:47 pm
  
  Kinda, but they do that cute twirly mating dance where they puff up all big! It’s entertaining!
  
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aussiebirder

December 30, 2014 at 1:41 pm

Hi JJ, Your Spotted Dove looks identical to our Spotted Turtledove.

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1. J.J. Springer
  
  December 30, 2014 at 1:46 pm
  
  I think that they are actually the same bird. Since it’s common in many different countries, it has many different names depending on where you are.
  
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