April 14 - Central Park - White-winged Dove

What was a nice day in the park turned into a great day in the afternoon. I spent the morning at the North End of the park where the best bird was a male Hooded Warbler on the Great Hill. I don't know who first found it, but when I got there there were a number of birders looking for it and it only took a short wait before it appeared. After a short visit to the Museum, I decided to go back into the park and spend some time at the feeders, hoping to see the Red-breasted Nuthatch that had been eluding me there for the last two weeks. While sitting and chatting with other birders I did a casual scan of the birds on the ground below the feeders and was stunned to spot a White-winged Dove mixed in with the Mourning Doves. I instantly called the other birders attention to the bird and quickly sent out the word on a couple of the listservs. My post was immediately picked up by Dave Barrett who promptly sent out a tweet about it. (I hadn't tweeted it myself because I so rarely use Twitter, I decided it was quicker to send it out by email than trying to remember the Twitter procedures. Other birders started appearing within minutes. I want to thank Bruce Yolton for sharing the following photos of the bird and generously giving me permission to post them here.

White-winged Dove - 04/14/2019 - Central Park (photo © Bruce Yolton)

White-winged Dove - 04/14/2019 - Central Park (photo © Bruce Yolton)

Over the hour and a half I watched the bird it was often aggressive towards the slightly smaller Mourning Doves feeding around it.