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Inca Dove

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.
 

Natural History

Inca doves are found in urban and suburban settings, woodland edges, savannahs, thickets and around cultivated fields in south-central Texas, Arizona and New Mexico as well as old Mexico and as far south as Costa Rica. The birds forage almost entirely on the ground in short vegetation. They are also frequent guests at household bird feeders and eat seeds from grains, weeds, and grasses. The birds uncover the seeds by whisking their bill around in the dirt.
 

On cold winter days Inca Doves have been known to form pyramids 2 or 3 tiers high in order to stay warm.

Inca doves mate in spring and early summer and are thought to be monogamous. Females usually lay 2 white eggs about 1 inch in length. Eggs hatch after 14 days, and the young fledge 14 to 16 days after that.

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