Undocumented Dove almost executed by a Texan Assassin.
An essay about my encounter with a Mexican-Inca Dove, also found in the Southeastern United States
I recently learned a little bit about the Inca Dove due to an encounter I had last month. On our daily walk my dog naturally led us to a stray cat playing on the side of the street. The cat ran, but the bird it was mauling couldn’t fly away. Our nurture instinct told us we had to take this poor little baby in. This led us to the pet store with an injured bird in our hand to buy bird food and we almost even got a bird cage. Once we got home, we decided to dig into our garage to set the dove in an old milk carton instead. We kept our little buddy outside to stay put and not hurt itself. Once we settled in, I was finally having second thoughts of keeping a bird in an apartment balcony.
1.) Vets are expensive
2.) Google told me it was basically illegal.
Wildlife experts don’t recommend you interfere with any animal that is hurt or injured as you can get them sick and spread disease. I planned to release the dove into the woods the next morning to fend for itself —far away from neighborhood cats. Morning came, so I checked up on the dove. I saw it pooped all over the cement and actually ate some of the seeds we got it. This led me to open the crate, and just like that, the dove flies off the balcony into the sky. I don’t know what changed, but I had her in my hand yesterday standing on my fingers trying to get her to fly only for the poor thing to flop not even 2 feet away. I couldn’t believe it! It’s almost as if its wing healed overnight.
This experience thus leads me down a small rabbit hole trying to figure out what kind of bird it was. Could have it been a giant finch? Well, no, aside from being little cuties finches are not even remotely close to what I thought they were either. I was thinking of those little jumping brown house sparrows.
Finally, after going down a list of Texan Birds I found it was the Little Turtle Dove of Mexico! ( Spanish name: Tortolita Mexicana) or Columbina Inca, in French.
Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Class Aves Order Columbiformes Genus Columbina Species Inca Dove/ Mexican dove
If you’re connecting the Mexican Doves name to the Inca Empire, you would be correct. Its name is meant to reflect some of the regions this bird is often seen in. Oddly enough the Inca Dove is found nowhere near the Inca empire which bordered the western South American region. Inca Doves, or better suited Torolita Mexicana is found in Central and in the southern region of North America. Still, I like the ring of it. These birds, like pigeons are a part of the same family, so they have that distinctive shape, walk, and cooooooing sound. However, I find them less cute and pudgy than the common pigeon. They’re much more delicate, slender, and have kind of an elegant sandy color scheme going on.
The Inca Dove is a relatively new species that was first documented over 100 years ago. To my understanding it was introduced in Laredo Texas (puro 956), back in 1866, but first documented 20 years prior within the southwestern region. Over the decades it has made its way up to North Texas, Oklahoma, and parts of New Mexico. 61% of these birds are found throughout Mexico and 33% throughout the USA, how lucky am I that Texas host a huge majority of the US Inca dove population. They don’t take a liking to cold environments which is probably why you don’t see them in those cooler northern regions.
Due to being native to this warmer region, the Inca dove participates in a very unique superb cute behavior called “Pyramid Roosting” This is basically where the doves cuddle another and roast in the sun to keep warm when the cooler seasons come along.
If you want to look out for these little cuties, they are relatively social, so they travel in groups and they are mostly found in urban environments just like their Pigeon cousins. Though they may scare easily, you can find them ground feeding in open fields, and nesting in nearby trees.
Sources:
INCA DOVE | The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas
Inca Dove Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Inca Dove (Columbina inca) - Avian Discovery
Inca Dove Overview, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology