Specialty birds in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX - Part 5 - White-tipped Dove & White-winged Dove

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INTRODUCTION

A continuation of a visual checklist of my efforts to capture images of birds that in the United States are seen primarily in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. The descriptions of the birds are terse.

The White-tipped Dove and White-winged Dove are featured in this post.

The combination of the Olympus OM-1 camera and the 150-400 mm f/4.5 TC lens was used to capture all the images displayed in this series.

White-tipped Dove, Bentsen Rio Grande State Park
Focal length: 445mm
1/2000 sec at f/5.6, ISO 4000
Handheld

Note the pale grey forehead and whitish throat of the White-tipped Dove. The tip of the tail is white, but this may not be visible unless the bird is in flight. The bill is black, the legs are red and the iris is yellow. Click on either of the two photos of the bird to see a larger view and the color of the iris in more detail.

White-tipped Dove, Bentsen Rio Grande State Park
Focal length: 400mm
1/320 sec at f/5.6, ISO 4000
Handheld

The White-tipped Dove is a permanent resident throughout its range which includes southernmost Texas in the United States and extends through Mexico and Central America south to western Peru and central Argentina as well as the offshore islands of northern South America.

White-winged Dove, Estero Llano Grande State Park
Focal length: 500mm
1/225 sec at f/5.6, ISO 800
Handheld

White-winged Dove has a black mark on the neck and a prominent white stripe in the wing. Click on the image of the bird to see a larger view that will make the blue eye ring and red eyes more visible.

White-winged Dove, Estero Llano Grande State Park
Focal length: 500mm
1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 1250
Handheld

The early range of the White-winged Dove overlapped the range of the saguaro, their favorite food, and extended from the Southwestern United States through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The North America range has been greatly expanded as agriculture in North America began providing alternative reliable sources of food for this species.

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.