Socorro
Dove
Zenaida graysoni (Lawrence, 1871)
Range: Previously
found on Socorro and Revillagigedo Islands off the west coast of MexicoZenaida graysoni (Lawrence, 1871)
Habitat: Lowland forests, up to 500 meters elevation
Diet: Fruits, Seeds, Berries, Insects Social Grouping: Solitary outside of breeding. Pairs split up shortly after their chicks fledge.
Reproduction: Breeding has
never been studied in the wild. Believed that breeding season peaked in
March and April. In captivity, 2 white eggs are laid in elevated nest boxes.
Eggs are incubated 14-17 days, chicks fledge at 14-20 days
Lifespan: 15
Years (for closely related mourning dove)Conservation Status: IUCN Extinct in the Wild
- Body length 26-34 centimeters, weighing 190 grams on average. Differ from many doves in having longer legs, characteristic of a more terrestrial lifestyle
- Males are cinnamon-colored on the head and underparts with a blue-gray neck. The head has an iridescent pink patch, most prominent just after molting. Females and juveniles resemble males, but are duller
- The call is a two-syllable “Coo-oo”, followed by three shorter coos and then another long one (“Coo-oo, oo, oo, oo, coo-oo”)
- Very terrestrial, feeds mostly on the ground. Mammalian predators were traditionally absent from the island; avian predators included hawks and frigatebirds.
- Genus name Zenaida honors the niece of Napoleon Bonaparte, Zenaida Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, a Princess of Canino and Musignano, by her ornithologist husband, Charles Bonaparte. The species name graysoni honors the American ornithologist Andrew Jackson Grayson
- Although the species was common on the islands as late as the 1950s, the last sighting of a specimen in the wild was in 1972. Several had been collected for aviculture in the 1920s, forming the basis of captive populations in Europe and North America
- Some birds in the captive population were later found to be hybrids with the closely related and much more common mourning dove (Z. macroura) and had to be excluded
- In 2013, several captive-bred doves were transferred to Mexico’s Africam Safari Park to establish an additional captive breeding colony in that country, with the aim of eventual reintroduction to the islands
- Primary cause of decline believed to be the introduction of invasive species – cats, which predated on the doves, and sheep, which overgrazed and destroyed their habitat. Efforts are underway to clear invasive species from the island
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