A dove in my driveway!

Originally Posted by keith p

I've heard of white doves being released at weddings, and also heard it's bad for them as they are captive raised and usually dont live long as to forage for food properly or find a good place to sleep.

But, yours MAY be an albino pigeon, it matches a pic of one when I googled it. If it has a brace, it's most likely someones pet that may have gotten seperated from the flock. Someone has pigeons by me, and the flock is let loose for a few hours a day to excercise there wings, and they know how to find home.

The white dove release seems suspicious though, I would honestly report this to the local aspca or wild animal rescues, incase this is one of those doves released from a wedding who cant survive in the wild.

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Pigeons and Doves are one in the same (there is a quote from Wiki listed above)

Most of the Doves that are released at weddings and funerals are Rock (Homing) Pigeons so that they can find their way home. At least they are supposed to be. If you hire someone for this, you are supposed to make sure they are homing pigeons being used.

1.Club Name:JEDDS PIGEON SUPPLY Club Code:JEDDS Club Secretary ICK RICKER City:ANAHEIM State:CA Phone No.:***-***-**** Email Address:

THIS IS ALL I FOUND
:?
anywhere near you?

Originally Posted by pixietina

1.Club Name:JEDDS PIGEON SUPPLY Club Code:JEDDS Club Secretary

ICK RICKER City:ANAHEIM State:CA Phone No.:***-***-**** Email Address:

THIS IS ALL I FOUND

:?
anywhere near you?

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I've got a call in to them, hopefully they'll call me back tomorrow and hopefully they've still got records. And unfortunately they're nowhere near me... that's on the other side of the country.

Originally Posted by bnwalker2

I've got a call in to them, hopefully they'll call me back tomorrow and hopefully they've still got records. And unfortunately they're nowhere near me... that's on the other side of the country.

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good lord!
thats a looong journey
id imagine theyd have records :/

Pigeons and Doves are one in the same (there is a quote from Wiki listed above)

Most of the Doves that are released at weddings and funerals are Rock (Homing) Pigeons so that they can find their way home. At least they are supposed to be. If you hire someone for this, you are supposed to make sure they are homing pigeons being used.

Click to expand...

Actually, most released at wedding are NOT homing pigeons (rock dove aka feral pigeon we all know), but the albino form of a Ringneck Dove (aka collard dove), also in magic acts. Totally different species who live in two different areas of the world. There cousin we all know is adapted to live in many areas, but these ringneck doves usually arent.

Natural origin.

The natural range of the African collared dove is in the savannah lands south of the Sahara Desert in Africa from Senegal and Mauritania in the west across the continent to Sudan and Ethiopia in the east. They are also located along the Red Sea coast in Arabia and in Yemen.

Feral populations of the ringneck dove are in found many areas of the world. I have observed large populations in the Tampa - St. Petersburg area of Florida and also have seen a number of pairs around Tallahassee, Florida. Others have told me this dove can be found throughout south Florida.

Considering the cold winter in some climates, observed birds may have come from people who keep and free fly their ringnecks in that area.

So, they are only seen usually in warmer areas from escaped birds, but that is usually the normal colored ones.

Here is info on the white variety of them,and how bad it is to have them loose.


ABOUT WHITE DOVES (important to know!)

The white dove is a color mutation of the African collared dove that has been around for perhaps a thousand years. They have been bred in cages since biblical times. The albino ringneck dove was imported from Japan in 1967. These birds are pure white and are reported to be without neck rings. See the photo of the bird below. However if one adjust the brightness and contrast settings on a photograph we found that the normally invisible neck ring can be made to appear.

Many of the people who write are people who have found white doves in various locations as the result of improper dove releases for weddings and other functions. Homing pigeons are the appropriate birds for such releases as they will return to the owner’s loft after their release. (but it wasnt a homing pigeon in this case) White doves are often used though because they are much cheaper to breed than homing pigeons, however they do not have the ability to return to the owners loft and thus end up in the wild. They often are not able to find food having had it provided to them all their life and because of their white color they are easy prey for a variety of predators. Thus many of these released birds die or are killed in a relatively short time. It seems to me an even worse tragedy is the use of albino doves in wedding releases. These birds have severely restricted vision in bright light and controlled flight is almost impossible.

site about these doves.

http://www.diamonddove.info/bird11&#...0and%20Habitat

I honestly think this dove should never be in the wild again, but in a wildlife facility, or someones pet since it has a slim chance of making it on its own.

The release of the ringneck doves is wrong and something should be said.

Homing pigeons are ok since they are bred specifically to find there way back home, and are adept to survive all over the world, they are a very hardy species. Still, the white ones are easier targets for birds of prey.

Actually most of the time the "doves" released at weddings are white homing pigeons. If you released a dove they would just fly away and never come home. When they release pigeons at weddings they fly away right back to their loft ready for the next wedding. Some can find their way back home for hundreds of miles. If a dove escaped it's cage it would get lost and probably die of the elements. That is definatly a pigeon in those pictures. It could be a homing pigeon but it could also be someones pet. I had a white pigeon but she wasn't a homing pigeon she was another breed.

Originally Posted by keith p

Actually, most released at wedding are NOT homing pigeons (rock dove aka feral pigeon we all know), but the albino form of a Ringneck Dove (aka collard dove), also in magic acts. Totally different species who live in two different areas of the world. There cousin we all know is adapted to live in many areas, but these ringneck doves usually arent.

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Maybe I shouldnt have used the word "most", but ALL the ones I've investigated and researched using DO use Rock Doves. But this is just in my neck of the woods. I did read articles on the web of others using ring-neck and am aware to steer clear of those companies. A quick simple search turned this up fast.

Since white ring-neck doves are so fragile, companies that release "doves" at special events use white homing pigeons instead. (Pigeons and doves are in the same family of birds, and the differences between them are more semantic than scientific.

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The companies I've researched also have a long list of do's and dont's, such as they will not release within an hour of sunset, they will not release near powerlines, etc, etc.

A sure sign that the released doves are homing pigeons is that they will make a quick circle of the area where they are released, then all head off in the same direction (toward home).

There was a book released recently, "Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird," by Andrew D. Blechman. It's a history of the pigeon, and it's really fascinating. I've heard him on a couple of NPR shows.

http://www.amazon.com/Pigeons-Fascin...9308187&sr=1-8

Originally Posted by mrblanche

A sure sign that the released doves are homing pigeons is that they will make a quick circle of the area where they are released, then all head off in the same direction (toward home).

There was a book released recently, "Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird," by Andrew D. Blechman. It's a history of the pigeon, and it's really fascinating. I've heard him on a couple of NPR shows.

http://www.amazon.com/Pigeons-Fascin...9308187&sr=1-8

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MrBlanche, I read this on one of the dove releasing pages I've researched. They didnt particularly explain why they did it or say that the was a sign of it being a homing pigeon; but they described what the birds would do when they were released, circling in the sky. I bet that is a beautiful site!

Originally Posted by Marianjela

MrBlanche, I read this on one of the dove releasing pages I've researched. They didnt particularly explain why they did it or say that the was a sign of it being a homing pigeon; but they described what the birds would do when they were released, circling in the sky. I bet that is a beautiful site!

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They are either getting a fix on the sun, or on the magnetic north. No one is completely sure, but they have to orient themselves to the earth before they can head for home.

Actually, they know that homing pigeons use magnetics to "home".
This is one of the things we studied when I took the class Mechanisms of Animal Behavior. Too long to go into here how they figured it out, but is should be published in an old issue of Scientific American.

If you tie a magnet to a pigeon it will not be able to find it's way home. If you put in opaque contact so it cannot see and then drive it all over the place and release it, it will still make it home.

Another interesting but off topic tidbit... honeybees use the polarization patterns in the sky to communicate where pollen sources are to the rest of the hive. Returning bees will "dance" the polarization pattern on a vertical surface of the hive. This was a fascinating experiment to watch.

That is a white racing pigeon (often mistakenly called Homing pigeons), it's also a he, not a she

He is simply lost, probably a young bird, or he was just lost in heavy winds.
Most releasers will not release during adverse weather conditions.

I used to race pigeons as a kid with my brother, and I've often thought about starting a loft of whites for occasion releases.


ETA: Actual doves are never, ever released, they have no homing instinct whatsoever, it would be the death of every dove released.
Most people with a white loft for occasion releases keep a few white ringneck doves for display cages at weddings etc, but only pigeons are released.