OYBC Member Finds Rare White-winged Dove

White-winged Dove Walking - Photo Adriana Losey

White-winged Dove Perched - Photo Adriana Losey On May 25th at around 6:00 pm I was just sitting on the couch working on my bird lists. I looked out the window and I saw a dove sitting near one of the feeders. It’s back was faced towards me, so I couldn’t see the front of the bird, but I realized that it had a rounded tail and not a pointed like a Mourning Dove. I quickly ran to my room and grabbed my camera and took probably 20 pictures of this bird (see photos).

I quickly uploaded my pictures and submitted a report to eBird. This White-winged Dove was the 2nd record for Delaware County according to eBird.  It was a state first for me, I’ve only seen them in FL. It also brought my yard list to 125 and my “patch” list to 196.

White-winged Dove Walking - Photo Adriana LoseyThe next day the bird was still present, so I posted it on the Ohio Birds email list when I got home from school. Within 10 minutes I had received about 30 emails about the dove. The next morning people started arriving at 6:00 am. I had to go to school, so I wasn’t there the whole day, but I had received emails saying that it was still there. When I got home (4:00 pm) there were a few birders there. I stood out with the birders till the dove arrived at 7:00 pm. On Saturday a few birders came by, but the dove was not seen.

I really enjoyed having the White-winged Dove at my house not just because it was rare, but because I got to meet a lot of new birders!

Adriana Losey is a member of the Central Ohio Chapter of the Ohio Young Birders Club, sponsored by Columbus Audubon.

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