Look-alike doves

Well, they're here.

Eurasian collared doves will - in about 10 years - become like the pestiferous European starlings and English sparrows we have around us today. There is no closed season on them; in an effort to control their growing numbers, ODFW allows you to kill them wherever it's legal to shoot a firearm.

But don't get confused! The pestiferous, non-native collared dove looks somewhat similar to our protected native mourning dove, so, before you shoot you'd better make sure what you're shooting at. Be careful you don't become a member of "The Hall of Shame" shooters that kill native wildlife out-of-season - it could cost you dearly.

The best way to tell a native mourning dove from the invasive collared variety is the plumage; the invader is all gray with a light brown back and an obvious white band on the broad tail and a black collar on the back of the neck. Our native mourning dove is spotted on the back, has a pointed tail and no collar on the neck.

No collar, don't shoot!

If you try to plead ignorance killing a mourning dove out-of-season, I have a hunch the judge will not be happy.

Another point to take into consideration: Collared doves evolved right alongside humans, which means they're happy around us. You can see them perched on the library and the school administration building next door most any time. Trying to control an alien invader that makes a living around your home by shooting it - especially within city limits - won't work. Be careful where you shoot, your neighbor may not like it.

The mourning dove, so-named because of its mournful call, is common throughout Sisters Country most of the year. They breed here, and if winter is mild, can be seen throughout the year.

Before climate change reared its ugly head, our mourning doves began gathering up in late September for their long trek to South America, where they spent winter. Now when they go south for winter - because it's so warm - they stop in California and Arizona, while some of the hardiest don't leave at all.

The collared dove does not a migrate; they don't have to. Over the last century, they have spread all over Europe. Its original range was warm temperate and subtropical Asia, from Turkey east to southern China and south through India to Sri Lanka.

By 1838, collared doves were reported in Bulgaria, but not until the 20th century did they expand across Europe, appearing in parts of the Balkans between 1900-1920; then spreading rapidly northwest, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain by 1953, Ireland in 1959, and the Faroe Islands in the early 1970s.

By the end of the 20th century they had spread northeast to most of central and northern China, Japan and Iceland. That gives us some idea of what the US of A is in for.

To this date, biologists have no idea how they will impact out native species, only that they "may be" occupying the niche between our native mourning dove and another Eurasian invader, the rock pigeon.

Happy hunting!