Mourning dove

Description: A taxidermy mount of a clearly badly off-course North American bird which landed on the Calf of Man on 31 October 1989. It was caught, ringed and released by the Bird Observatory staff, but found dead the following day, perhaps too exhausted to continue. The record of the bird's arrival in the Isle of Man was eventually accepted as the first report of the species in the Western Palearctic ecozone (consisting of Europe, and the northern regions of Asia, Africa and the Arabian Peninsula).

The Mourning dove is a common species in farmland, open forest, parks and suburban areas of the United States and southern Canada. Some birds from northern populations migrate south as far as central America in winter, but for one to cross the Atlantic like this bird is highly abnormal.

Taxonomic name: Zenaida macroura

Collection: Natural History Zoology Collection

ID number: 1990-0001

Subject tags : #MM100COLLECTIONS

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