How can I identify the species of a wild bird?
When trying to determine species there are a many physical characteristics that you will need to consider. Here are a few: How big is the bird? How many inches? Is its body round or elongated? What shape is the bird’s beak? Is it long like a woodcock or a heron? Flat and rounded like a duck? Short and fat like a cardinal or a finch? Short and skinny like a warbler? What colour is the beak? What do the bird’s legs and feet look like? Are the legs long like a heron, or short like a swallow? Does it have webbing between its toes, or lobes like a grebe? What colour are the feet? What colour are the bird’s feathers? Does it have any unique or distinguishing colours or features? What habitat does the bird live in? What does it eat?
Be careful when using the internet to identify bird species as often birds can be mistaken for another species. We recommend Cornell’s All About Birds lab (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/building-skills-the-4-keys-to-bird-identification/) It is a great resource to help you!
How can I identify a Pigeon from a Mourning dove?
Adult Pigeons are usually dark grey, but can also be white, brown, light grey, or any combination of the above, either solid or mottled. Mourning doves are pale brownish grey, have black spots on wings and blue “ring” of skin around the eye.
Young Pigeons have yellow down when hatched. Young Mourning doves’ down is white when hatched. For both species, it decreases as feathers come in and it may look like “hairs” poking through feathers.
Pigeons have a long beak with a bump near their face that may appear hooked. Doves have a slimmer long beak without a bump.
Pigeon babies are very large. Generally, the size of a tennis ball or bigger. Doves are medium sized babies, smaller than a racquetball ball and nestlings are very tiny.
Pigeons often make loud “Peee-peee-peee” sounds and doves are usually quiet and occasionally may make soft whispery “feeeeeeee” sounds.
In order to properly identify a pigeon vs a dove please email info@lenichoir.org photos or short videos of the bird with your phone number and name included. This should be done prior to coming to Le Nichoir, as we do not care for pigeons.