John Walter wrote:
>
> Bob,
> Further to my previous mail. It may well be a Barbary Dove as suggested by
> Michael Norris and others. But - Ben King in Birds of SE Asia p.174 makes
> mention of a conspicuous yellow eye ring on decaocto. The illustration in
> Collins Birds of North America shows an eye ring [the illustration is to
> small for my eye to distinguish the colour] Your pictures show no eye ring.
> You also mentioned the bird was smaller than a crested pigeon 30.5cm -
> 35.5cm Pizzey. My books say decaocto is 13 inches or 33 cm, which is within
> the range for crested pigeon whereas Cape Turtle Dove Streptopelia capicola
> is smaller at 28cm.
Only problem is that the Cape Turtle Dove is not present in Australian
avicultural collections and so it would have had to fly quite a long way
to get here. The Barbary Dove is present in large numbers, is very
cheap, breeds prolifically and is hard to sell, and so is quite likely
to be found as an escapee.
cheers,
Mike Owen
SE Queensland
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