White-tipped Dove
Leptotila verreauxi
Overview 2
The White-tipped Dove is among the most widely distributed of the doves in the New World. It can be found as far north as southernmost Texas, and it reaches south to Buenos Aires, Argentina and throughout Uruguay. It is a species that does best in dry forests, deciduous forest, thorn scrub although it does take moister forest sites in parts of its range. The name white-tipped is due to the white tips on the outer tail feathers, although this feature is shown by various relatives in the genus Leptotila. Overall it is not a fancy looking dove, being buffy or creamy-brown in coloration with a whiter forehead and most noticeable a rusty underwing as it flies by. It is a robust and pot-bellied species which gives a melancholy double hoot; although sometimes a single hooting call is given. There may be cryptic species involved. The orbital ring is red in the north of the range, but becomes blue in the south of the range; it is unclear if this difference correlates with any vocal differences. On the other hand the population in Tobago has a single hoot song, not the typical double-hoot and visually this form also lacks any iridescence on the neck of the male. In some ways it resembles the Grenada Dove, which is found just to the north of Tobago. More work needs to be done on this widespread species to elucidate these patterns of variation; some recent genetic work suggest some lineages may be rather distinct and more than one species could be involved.
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- (c) Joven, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
