Inca doves are tiny gray pigeon-like birds with long tails. Their outer tail feathers are white. They have rusty wing patches easily seen when they fly. Inca’s have a distinctive fish scale pattern on their breast, head and back feathers.

Sexual maturity : Less than 1 year
Mating season: Spring and early summer. Inca doves usually nest 2 to 5 times during a season.
Breeding territory: 1 pair per 37 acres
Gestation: Eggs hatch in14 days, the young fledge 14 to 16 days after that.
Number of young: Usually 2. Eggs are white and 9/10 inches long.
Diet: Seeds

During courtship, the male inca dove bows, coos and struts in front of the female, fanning his tail feathers. Males battle furiously for females.

With their soft cooing calls, males strutting for females and their regular use of bird feeders, inca doves quickly become back yard favorites.

Inca doves seem to be increasing in areas of human disturbance.

• Dove and pigeon nestlings are fed “pigeon milk” a high protein milky substance produced and regurgitated by their parents.
  
  
• Dove nests are a flimsy basket of sticks barely woven together.
  
  
• In the winter, Inca doves gather in flocks of up to 50. On cold winter days they have been known to form pyramids 2 or 3 tiers high in order to stay warm.
  
  
• Legend has it this common Southwest species is one of the most desert-adapted of the family. Its plump body can survive both extreme heat and cold. They can go four or five days without drinking, and fly 10 or more miles to reach a water hole. Because they fly directly to water, with no searching about, early west Texas travelers would often watch doves to locate water holes.