White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi)

White-tipped Dove Leptotila verreauxi
Brazilian name: Juriti

Brazil

The White-tipped Dove is distributed from southern Texas through Central America to most of tropical and sub-tropical South America east of the Andes. Throughout most of its South American range it is found in the same regions as Grey-fronted Dove L. rufaxilla and they are very similar. Most would say that they are almost impossible to distinguish in the field.

The CBRO (Brazilian Records Committee) has a note by José Fernando Pacheco about these 2 species on its website at http://www.ib.usp.br/ceo/avparq/lepver.htm which translates roughly as follows:
• Crown clearly bluish contrasting with the nape = L. rufaxilla; crown greyish brown blending with the nape = L. verreauxi
• Sides of the neck rusty in tone = L. rufaxilla; or greyish = L. verreauxi
• Hindneck and nape grey with violaceous tones = L. rufaxilla; or clearly greyish = L. verreauxi
• The white tip of the tail feathers (especially the penultimate) occupies almost 25% of the feather = L. verreauxi; or only about 10% = L. rufaxilla.

On this basis I would judge that the bird in photos 1 to 3 is a White-tipped Dove. Although it is notoriously difficult to judge colour in different lights from a photo, I think that this bird complies with the description of White-tipped Dove and the second photo in particular shows fairly extensive white on the tail feathers. These photos were taken at Serra de Carajás, Pará.

White-tipped Dove, Mãe-da-Lua Reserve, Ceará, Brazil, October 2008 - click for larger image

Photos 4 to 6 were taken at the marvelous Mãe-da-Lua Reserve, Ceará which is caatinga habitat. This bird is definitely White-tipped Dove. Apart from appearances, Grey-fronted Dove only occurs in forest habitat and it avoids arid areas such as caatinga.

I was interested to see the chestnut on the underwings in photo 6. The scientific name for Grey-fronted Dove is Leptotila rufaxilla which derives from the Latin rufus for red and axilla for armpit. The confusing bit is that both Leptotila verreauxi and Leptotila rufaxilla have chestnut underwings.

There are recordings on xeno-canto and additional information is available through Avibase.

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