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The Inca Dove has been expanding its range in Texas since it was first collected at Laredo in 1866 (Butcher 1868). It next appeared at Austin in 1889 and by the early 1900s was breeding at San Antonio, New Braunfels, Austin and Waco.
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. Life History This common Southwest species is one of the most desert-adapted of the family.
For Jong years the Inca dove (Scardafella inca) or Mexican dove, as it is often called, was confined to a region between San Antonio and the Rio Grande and southward into Mexico, Bexar county was perhaps the northern limit in Texas.
Texas is home to seven species of native doves and pigeons. The three legal game species (hunted) include Mourning, White-winged and White-tipped doves. Protected species (non-hunted) include the Inca dove, Common Ground dove, Band-tailed pigeon and Red-billed pigeon.
ABSTRACT—We provide an analysis of apparent survival for Inca Dove (Columbina inca) in Galveston, Texas. We aged and banded 24 hatch-year and 103 after-hatch-year doves during 1980–1990. Our analysis provided evidence for effects of body mass on survival.
During the winter, the numbers of this dove swell in coastal areas of Texas, due to an influx of wintering birds from northern parts of the state. Inca Dove. Scientific name: Columbina inca. The Inca Dove is a bird of the southwest, and Texas marks the eastern end of its range.
Observations of wild Inca Doves in southern Dona Ana County, New Mexico, Travis and San Patricia counties, Texas, and southern Sonora, Mexico, form the basis for this report. These doves are notable for their apparent preference for living in modified urban parkland.
