This bird's
hefty size and rounded off tail give the "white-wing" the
appearance of being half dove and half pigeon,
hence the older name of "Sonora pigeon." Whitewings
differ from the more widespread mourning
dove in having an overall grayer plumage,
a white-tipped tail, and the white wing epaulets
that give the bird its name. Unless pressed
by gunners, the whitewing's flight also appears
slower, less purposeful, and more pigeonlike
than the mourning dove's. Adults can be distinguished
by an unfeathered bright blue eye patch,
red feet, and eyes that range from yellow-orange
to orange-red. By way of contrast, birds
of the year have dull purplishbrown feet
and are marked mostly in grays, whites, and
browns. Adult males are especially handsome
birds, their brownish heads crowned in reddish
purple with areas on the neck flecked with
gold, green, and purple iridescence. The
average weight of an adult male is about
5.5 ounces, although birds weighing up to
8 ounces have been recorded.
Natural History
There are two types of white-winged dove populations in Arizona, a thinly
scattered population found throughout the Sonoran Desert and the surrounding
countryside (including towns and residential neighborhoods), and colonial
populations that nest collectively along river bottoms adjacent to agricultural
areas. Most of the desert and residential area whitewings nest only once
and migrate out of the state prior to the opening of the dove season on
September 1. The colonial whitewings, however, usually nest twice before
departing for their wintering areas in southwestern Mexico. These are the
whitewings that are most often present after September 1, and which contribute
most to the harvest. Males of both populations begin courtship as soon
as they arrive in Arizona in late April and early May. By late May, nesting
is at its peak, both sexes sharing in the incubation of the eggs and the
feeding and brooding of the two young squabs, most of which hatch toward
the end of June. Fed a highly nutritious "pigeon-milk" by their parents,
the squabs are usually fledged by late June or July. Should grains or other
high-energy foods be available, the colonial-nesting birds will now attempt
another nesting, while the "desert birds" begin migrating south. As the
second nesting comes to a close in late July and August, both the juvenile
birds and their parents form gregarious flocks in selected roost sites
adjacent to favored feeding fields, which unlike those selected by mourning
doves, are often composed of standing crops of barley, maize, and safflower.
The stimuli for the mass migration from cultivated valleys that takes place
about September 1 are not completely understood. Summer storms, a drop
in nighttime temperatures, food shortages, and harassment by hunters have
all been suggested as reasons for the movement. Nonetheless, there have
been years when all of these events occurred with little or no influence
on the onset of migration. Once migration is underway, the departure is
often rapid, the adults usually leaving before the juveniles.
Hunting and Trapping History
A favorable combination of nesting cover and grain crops resulted in two
great heydays of whitewinged dove hunting in Arizona. The first of these
was in the years prior to World War I, and the second was during the years
after World War II. So plentiful were these birds that the bag limit was
25 per day and 50 in possession. Numbers peaked in the 1960s when, in 1968,
an all-time record harvest of more than 3/4 million was reached. Since
then, declining nesting habitat and the virtual replacement of grain farming
by cotton and alfalfa have greatly reduced whitewing hunting opportunities.
But after reaching a low of 86,000 birds in 1980, whitewing harvests have
again gradually increased. Although subject to half-day hunting and reduced
bag limits, hunter numbers have stabilized during the past five years when
an average of between 25,000 to 30,000 hunters have taken to the field,
bagging from 122,000 to180,000 whitewings a year.
Habitat
