Columbina inca
Status: Rare casual winter visitor statewide.
Documentation: Photograph: 28 Oct 1987-7 Mar 1988 Kearney, Buffalo Co (Paine 1988).
Taxonomy: No subspecies are recognized (Pyle 1997).
Winter: Inca Dove has been reported eight times, all documented (see Comments). All but one of the records are of birds which arrive in fall and attempt to overwinter at feeders. Juvenile Mourning Doves are sometimes mistaken for Inca Doves.
8 Jun 2009 Dundy Co photograph (Brogie 2009b)
11 Sep-23 Nov 1996, apparently a single bird at two Chadron, Dawes Co feeders (Brogie 1998)
22 Oct-13 Dec 2008 Brule, Keith Co (Brogie 2009a)
28 Oct 1987-7 Mar 1988 Kearney, Buffalo Co (Grenon 1990; Mollhoff 1989; Paine 1988)
14-30 Nov 1989 north of Bassett, Rock Co (Grenon 1990)
late Nov 2005-18 Mar 2006 photographed Sarpy Co yard (Brogie 2007)
from early Dec 1990 for about six weeks, Orleans, Harlan Co (Grenon 1991)
31 Dec 2006 photographed at feeder at Keystone, Keith Co (Brogie 2007)
Three were reported at Lincoln, Lancaster Co 31 May 2007 by an observer familiar with the species in Texas, but no photographs or details were provided. An additional report was of one well-described near Madison, Madison Co 15 Oct 2000; the observer conservatively questioned its origin, suggesting that it was brought from Arizona and released along with some other birds (William Flack, personal communication).
Comments: A species of the southwest, it expanded northward in the late 1990s and early 2000s at about the same time as White-winged Dove, but it has not established anywhere on the Great Plains north of central Colorado and Kansas. Northward expansion is probably limited by “cold sensitivity” (Mueller 2020). Coincidentally, all eight Nebraska records occurred from 1988-2009. The only Great Plains records north of Kansas and southern Colorado are Dec 2006 in Montana, Dec 1992 in North Dakota, Oct 1983 in South Dakota (Tallman et al 2002), and, in northeastern Colorado, Sep 2007 Yuma Co, Nov 2004 Cheyenne Co, Oct 1994, and Larimer Co Oct 1994 and Jan 2001 (eBird.org, accessed Aug 2024). There is a single more recent record for Iowa, Sep 2016 (eBird.org, accessed Aug 2024).
Images
Literature Cited
Brogie, M.A. 1998. 1997 (Ninth) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 66: 147-159.
Brogie, M.A. 2007. 2006 (18th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 75: 86-94.
Brogie, M.A. 2009a. 2008 (20th) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 77: 80-90.
Brogie, M.A. 2009b. 2009 (21st) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 77: 160-168.
Grenon, A.G. 1990. 1990 (Third) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 58: 90-97.
Grenon, A.G. 1991. 1991 (Fourth) Report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 59: 150-155.
Mollhoff, W.J. 1989. Second report of the NOU Records Committee. NBR 57: 42-47.
Mueller, A. J. (2020). Inca Dove (Columbina inca), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (A. F. Poole, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.incdov.01.
Paine, E. 1988. An Inca Dove in Nebraska, in winter! NBR 56: 3.
Pyle, P. 1997. Identification Guide to North American Birds. Part I, Columbidae to Ploceidae. Slate Creek Press, Bolinas, California, USA.
Tallman, D.A., Swanson, D.L., and J.S. Palmer. 2002. Birds of South Dakota. Midstates/Quality Quick Print, Aberdeen, South Dakota, USA.
Thompson, M.C., C.A. Ely, B. Gress, C. Otte, S.T. Patti, D. Seibel, and E.A. Young. 2011. Birds of Kansas. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Recommended Citation
Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen. 2024. Inca Dove (Columbina inca). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org
Birds of Nebraska – Online
Updated 6 Aug 2024