Bar-shouldered Dove
Bushland Beach, December 2021.
This is a long tailed dove that fans it’s tail during courtship. I am yet to get a photo of that. When the birds are breeding their normally grey-blue eye ring (shown above) turns to a red brown.
They derive their name from their dark grey brown upper-parts that have black barring.
Bushland Beach, December 2021.
The chest area is a blue grey that fades down to a cream. I see these birds in large numbers in the mangroves at Bushland Beach outside Townsville. They also like watered woodlands and semi arid shrub.
They feed on grass seeds and bulbs of some sedges.