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Yard prairie; Re: Eurasian Collared Dove origin



Hi Carolinabirders,

Stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom this morning, to have my bleary
eyes widened by the sound of a Prairie Warbler singing! First one for the
new yard in Old North Durham, species #59; should at least be able to
crack 60 before the one-year anniversary arrives in about three weeks...

On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, Shantanu Phukan wrote:
>
> Just a question about Eurasian Collared Doves: Do we knwo if they were
> introduced by people or colonized North America on their own?

My understanding is that the Eurasian Collared-Dove was introduced
somewhere in the Caribbean. Let's see, a little web-searching says:
Bahamas, 1975. It then underwent a population boom there, and began
island-hopping until it reached Florida, then spread rapidly west along
the Gulf Coast to Texas, and more slowly north up the Atlantic Coast to
NC. Not sure if there are any nesting records in coastal Virginia yet, and
I haven't encountered any yet in the NC Piedmont (they're not on the
Triangle Bird Checklist either), but I'm sure it won't be long now...

Interesting! Apparently the "Eurasian" Collared-Dove, according to the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, was naturally strictly Asian, not occurring
any further west than Turkey. It didn't get any further into Europe until
the 1900's, didn't reach Great Britain until 1950, and now is found above
the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia! So they apparently are not cold-limited.

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/