>With all the conversation about band-tailed pigeons, it seems like a good
>time to ask the question that's been in the back of my mind for a while:
>How do you identify them vs. a rock dove when flying overhead? The
>Peterson Field Guide only shows field markings that are visible from above.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Jim Lady

Jim, they differ in a number of ways.

BTPI is larger, certainly evident on the uncommon occasions when they're
together.

BTPI has longer tail, a good flight field mark.

BTPI has more rounded wings, which in combo with longer tail gives it a
different silhouette.

RODOs typically show white underwings that contrast with the gray body
color. Obviously won't work for largely white birds or for the blackish
ones, which have dark underwings.

All BTPI look the same, gray, while a flock of RODO shows all kinds of
color variation.

RODO of most gray types (I don't like to call them "morphs," as I think of
that in evolutionary terms, and these color variations were produced by
breeding programs) have a dark band on the end of the tail, BTPI a pale
band.

Not always realized, RODOs almost never perch in trees (they do at
Occidental Square in downtown Seattle, but that's unusual), while BTPIs
rarely perch on humanmade structures such as telephone poles and buildings.
But I have seen both together at the Tacoma grain terminal, sitting on
wires, buildings, RR tracks, just to show you can't generalize absolutely.

Pigeons flying high over forested areas usually turn out to be band-tails,
those flying low over cities and along freeways usually turn out to be Rock
Doves. I make the Seattle-Tacoma-Seattle commute 5 days/week and get a lot
of pigeon sightings.

One more thing about biology--Rock Doves are absolutely dominant to
Band-tailed Pigeons when they both visit my feeders at the same time. The
band-tails crowd onto a feeder in groups, relatively tolerant, while a Rock
Dove will let only its mate on the feeder, never a band-tail. A fairly
unusual case of a smaller species dominant to a larger one, but perhaps not
surprising for a human commensal.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416