In my quest for the unusual and uncommon I have been lurking around some of the WMAs in deep south TX. Dove hunting is a very big deal down here and most of the doves are the common Mourning Dove and White Wing. But there is another type here, the White Tipped Dove, that is mostly a tropical bird in Mexico and farther south and the Rio Grande Valley is the northern limit of their range. I have seen a few while hunting chachalaca and I decided I needed to get serious about them.

So today on one of the public hunting areas I had it all come together. The limit on these birds is 2 and that is what I pulled off.



These are a really pretty bird with an overall coloring of several shades of grey and when the sun hits them just right they show a really subtle pink tinge. Unlike other doves they have a rust colored patch under each wing. They are about twice the size of a white wing and have a squared off tail that is tipped in white which gives them their name.


When I came to the Rio Grande Valley I had 4 things on my bucket list: Chachalaca, Javelina, White Tipped Dove and Nilgai. I just need the nilgai.

Life is Good. Peace

Congrats!

Cool. They look fat and juicy.

Cool , congrats

good find! Back when I duck hunted lake Corpus Christi pretty heavily, I would see a few of them hanging around the shoreline. Cool birds, great addition to the collection.

I never could find a pic to identify a white tipped dove. Thanks, and congratulations!

2x size of a whitewing? That's a big bird. Congratulations on your success!