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Queries from garden owners to help them to identify birds that they have seen in their
gardens will invariably turn to the variety of birds that they have already identified in
their gardens. But in some cases the person, when listing the birds seen in his garden,
will mention doves and "mossies" (sparrows) as if they are all the same, even though there
is a good chance that there might be for instance up to three species of Sparrows
(Cape, House and Grey-headed) in their gardens.
The same are true for some of our dove
species. Although most people will know the difference between a Cape Turtle Dove and a
Laughing Dove, mostly because the Laughing Dove lacks the black ring on the neck, they
do not realise that Red-eyed Doves also occur in our gardens (this statement will not be
true for parts of the Northern Cape Region).
The reason for this oversight has to do with the fact that we as human beings are firstly
attracted to colour when trying to identify a bird. Two doves with similar colours as the
Cape Turtle Dove and Red-eyed Dove are thus easily identified as the same
bird (see images on left). But a closer
look at the two birds will clearly show another big difference - size. Red-eyed Doves are
much larger than a Cape Turtle Dove. An observant bird watcher will immediately note this
difference and will question if the dove observed is not of a different species.
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