Inca Dove

Inca Dove
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Columbiformes
Family:	Columbidae
Genus:	Columbina
Species:	C. inca
Binomial name
Columbina inca (Lesson, 1847)
Synonyms
Scardafella inca

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 Doves reach a length of 16.5–23 cm (6.5–9.1 in) and weigh 30–58 g (1.1–2.0 oz).^[1] 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 which 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.

A pair of Inca Doves nesting

During winter, they roost in communal huddles in a pyramid formation that helps them conserve heat. These pyramids can contain up to 12 birds.^[2]

The flimsy twig nest is built 1–8 m high in a tree, often a thorny species, and two white eggs are the normal clutch.

Notes

1. ^ [1] (2011).
2. ^ Paul B. Robertson; Ann F. Schnapf (1987) Pyramiding Behavior in the Inca Dove: Adaptive Aspects of Day-Night Differences. The Condor 89(1):185-187.

References

• BirdLife International (2004). Scardafella inca. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 09 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
• Sibley, David Allen, The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America. ISBN 0-679-45121-8
• Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
• "Columbina inca". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=177162. Retrieved 4 February 2006. 

External links

• Inca Dove (USGS)
• Inca Dove photo gallery VIREO
• Inca Dove videos on the Internet Bird Collection