Published: November 05, 2009 10:46 am      

Outdoors: Collared dove numbers flying high

If you have a backyard bird-feeder, you have probably observed big, light-grey doves with black collars around the back and sides of their necks. These beautiful doves, sometimes called ringnecks, are Eurasian collared doves.

Like sparrows and starlings these big birds are a non-native, evasive species.

The first free-flying, naturalized population of collared doves in Texas was sighted in the northeastern part of the state in 1995. Since then, their population has spread to all 254 Texas counties.

Originally living in India, Burma and Sri Lanka, collared doves then spread west into Turkey and the Balkans. During the early 20th century they began to expand across Europe and North Africa, reaching England and Norway by the mid-1950s.

But to cross the Atlantic to the western hemisphere, they needed help.

A breeder of exotic birds in the Bahamas ordered some ringed turtle doves from a European supplier in the 1970s but was sent European collared doves instead. Some of them escaped in 1974 and then the breeder released the remainder of his stock. Soon a population of 10,000 birds was resident in the Bahamas.

Then it was just a matter of time until they made the short trip to Florida. From a beachhead near Miami, these exotic doves spread across the state in 10 years.

By the turn of the century, they had established populations throughout the Southeast — then as far west as California and North to Montana.

Collared doves are highly-adaptable birds. They’re very much at home in urban or agricultural settings. They often concentrate around grain elevators, feed stores and livestock feeding operations.

And they are very prolific.

The female lays two white eggs at a time. Incubation lasts 14-18 days and the young fledge after 15-19 days.

They are capable of breeding and nesting throughout the year, often beginning a second nest before the first have fledged. Some have been observed in Floridian studies producing six broods a year.

No wonder that their numbers are accelerating.

The big question is “What about their impact on our native species of mourning doves and white wings?” No one knows. Only time will tell.

Big numbers of collared doves have showed up at our dove lease near Panna Maria. They hang out near the cattle pens, not only eating from the feeders but devouring corn that passes through the cattle undigested.

We can always count on them being in the same area every time we hunt. We love it. They’re bonus birds.

They’re awesome looking in the air. Larger ones exceed 13 inches in length with wing spans of 20 or more inches. The tail is long and square, tipped with white. When in good shotgun range they look huge compared to a mourning dove.

The exotics on our lease have become very educated since we began hunting them.

At first, they would flush from the cattle pens when we shot and then soon return to the big live oats that surround the cattle feeding trough. One morning I shot 13 of them in a few minutes.

Now when we shoot, they put on oxygen masks and climb into the ozone, sometimes not returning until we go home.

It has become a cat-and-mouse game.

Sometimes we drop a hunter on a tree line that they usually follow on their escape flight. The other hunter parks the truck and gets off a few shots near the pens. Then flocks of 10-15 birds flush across the sky over the ambushed shooter.

Occasionally, a bird folds and falls awhile the other birds in the flock go ballistic. They swerve, tumble and dive, becoming almost impossible to hit.

But it’s sure fun trying.

Mourning and white wing season closed Tuesday in the South Zone. No problem. We can keep on hunting.

There’s no season or bag limit on the ring necks.

Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated televsion show “God’s Great Outdoors.” His column appears every Thursday in the Daily Record.