Young Inca Dove - a photo on Flickriver

Young Inca Dove

            A young Inca in the nest all by itself!

Found the nest in my neighbor's yard and this was the last day that they were in the nest.
These are very common in our backyard and very helpful since they clean up the seeds from the bird feeder. Sometimes they are called Love Birds!
Inca doves are tiny gray pigeon-like birds with long tails. Their outer tail feathers are white. They have rusty wing patches easily seen when they fly. Inca's have a distinctive fish scale pattern on their breast, head, and back feathers.
This common Southwest species is one of the most desert-adapted of the family. Its plump body can survive both extreme heat and cold. They can go four or five days without drinking, and fly 10 or more miles to reach a water hole. 
Their melodious "hoo hoo" repeated up to 30 times a minute fills the air during early summer. These doves are almost always seen in pairs. Their scaly appearance sets them apart from other small doves. In the winter, Inca doves gather in flocks of up to 50. On cold winter days they have been known to form pyramids 2 or 3 tiers high in order to stay warm. 
During courtship, the male inca dove bows, coos and struts in front of the female, fanning his tail feathers. Males battle furiously for females. Dove nests are a flimsy basket of sticks barely woven together. Dove and pigeon nestlings are fed "pigeon milk" a high protein milky substance produced and regurgitated by their parents. 
Inca doves seem to be increasing in areas of hman disturbance. These seed-eating doves are common visitors to bird feeders. With their soft cooing calls, males strutting for females and their regular use of bird feeders, inca doves have quickly become back yard favorites.
A small tropical dove of arid areas, the Inca Dove has become a common resident of urban areas of the Southwest. It has expanded its breeding range northward and southward, but has remained attracted to towns and cities.
The Inca Dove (Columbina inca) is a small New World dove; it might belong to the genus. It ranges from the southwestern United States and Mexico through Central America to Costa Rica; the Inca Dove only lives on the Pacific side of Central America. Despite being named after the Inca Empire, this species does not occur in any of the lands that constituted that region. Inca Doves are common to abundant within their range and they are expanding their range north and south.
Inca . They are slender, with a gray-brown body covered in feathers that resemble a scaled pattern. The tail is long and square, edged with white feathers that may flare out in flight. In flight, the underwing is reddish, like other ground doves, and on takeoff, the wings produce a distinctive, quiet rattling noise.
This is a terrestrial species that occurs in flocks in open areas including scrub and cultivation. It will feed in urban areas, eating grass seeds and taking advantage of the ready availability of water from agricultural and suburban irrigation. The song, a forceful cooing rendered variously as "cowl-coo" or "POO-pup", may be given from a tree, wire, or other open, high perch such as a television aerial.



   

Taken on: March 13, 2009

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Camera: Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi, f/8.0, 1/30 sec, 300mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XTi
Lens:	EF75-300mm f/4-5.6
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.033 sec (1/30)
Focal Length:	300mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.14 (Windows)
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