White-winged Dove

White-winged Doves are perhaps the most abundant summer birds in southeast Arizona, common, conspicuous, and gluttonous everywhere in the desert lowlands. For that very reason, there are short-sighted people (even birders!) who don’t like them; but even those of us who are fond of the species sometimes forget just how beautiful this enormously familiar bird is.

No pheasant, no antbird rivals that face, almost reptilian in the beauty of its bare blue skin and orange iris.