White Winged Dove

The white-winged dove is a fairly large dove with a long bill. Its name derives from a broad white band that can be seen along the edge of the wing when it is folded and across the wing when it is opened. The reddish eye is surrounded by bright blue skin, and there is a dark streak on the cheek below the eye.

The white-winged dove is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Central America. Its diet consists of seeds, berries, and other fruit.

White-winged doves are migratory and arrive at their breeding grounds in late-April. Males seek out nesting grounds in woody habitat and are territorial, sparring with wing-slaps when necessary. They attract a mate with cooing and visual displays. After copulation, the female will choose a nest site within the male's territory and construct a nest out of grasses, twigs, and weed stems. The female typically lays two eggs, and then both the male and female take turns incubating the eggs. Incubation lasts about 14 days, and the chicks leave the nest within 13-16 days of hatching. The male will continue to feed the young near the nest until they are four weeks old, but the female may start a new clutch immediately. At the end of the nesting season, in August, the birds aggregate in large feeding flocks, moving between nightly roost sites and daily foraging grounds. Migration south begins in mid- to late-September.

White-winged doves (Zenaida asiatica) and the saguaro cactus (Carnegeia gigantea) have a well-established relationship. Western white-winged doves (Zenaida asiatica mearnsii) obtain nutrients and water almost exclusively from the saguaro during the doves' breeding season. The doves' migration into the Sonoran Desert coincides with the reproductive cycle of the cactus, which flowers between April and mid-June. While blooming, the white-winged dove visits the flower more frequently then any other avian or bat species. Studies have shown that the white-winged dove carries large pollen loads on its bill, head feathers, crown, cheeks, and chin, and thereby transfers pollen as it moves from flower to flower. The cactus depends on the white-winged dove, as well as bees and bats, for its pollination services, as the saguaro requires cross-pollination to reproduce.

White-winged Doves inhabit brushlands and woodlands or desert scrub and cacti, as well as agricultural fields and residential areas throughout their range. Eastern migratory populations breed in the semi-tropical, thorny woodlands in the states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Veracruz in Mexico and along the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas, USA. They also nest extensively in citrus orchards, accounting in some years for 50-90% of all nesting activity. In Texas, nesting colonies and individuals also rely on residential shade and ornamental trees as nest sites from which they utilize bird feeders and bird baths in town and take feeding forays into nearby agricultural fields. Western White-winged Doves breed in regions of desert scrub and cacti or riparian woodlands throughout Sonora and Baja California in Mexico, and in southeastern Nevada and California, southern Arizona, and western New Mexico, USA. They also utilize citrus groves and residential areas as nesting sites and agricultural fields for feeding grounds. When they migrate south for winter, both populations join resident White-winged Doves in semi-arid regions of thornscrub, deciduous dry forest, cacti forest, savannah, and agricultural and riparian areas with scattered trees.