Common Ground-Dove
Columbina passerina
"Uncommon among brushy and
weedy vegetation in dry sandy soil. Usually in pairs or small
groups ... Very small, with flicking wingbeats and low direct
flight. Distinguished from Inca Dove by short tail and unpatterened
plumage with dark spots on wing coverts." (David Allen Sibley.
The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America,
p. 209)
"This species is locally uncommon
to rare along the upper coast east to the Texas-Louisianna border."
(Mark W. Lockwood & Brush Freeman's The TOS Handbook of
Texas Birds, p. 89)
This shows the "scaled breast and nape."
Picture taken with a Nikon D300
using a Nikon 300mm, f/4.5 manual focus lens.
January 28, 2007.