The grey ringneck dove (mutation)

[Print Tippler]

I don't know what color they were. To the best of my memory i though they were the same color as my doves.

[Libis]

Originally Posted by Print Tippler

I don't know what color they were. To the best of my memory i though they were the same color as my doves.

I know it gets really hard to tell between fawn/blond ringneck, and the wild type colors of the Eurasian and African collared doves.

I think it's really interesting, though, that you had laughing doves who sound like they were surviving in the wild. It makes me want to be all speculative about where they came from and whether they're hybrids or African collared doves. It also makes me want to watch the doves in my yard more closely (I know there are some ferals hanging around--pretty sure they were Eurasians, but I've never seen their tail spikes or heard them coo/scream/laugh/etc.)

Probably the only way to know for sure is side-by-side with a ringneck.

[Libis]

Btw, your birds are gorgeous! They're the same color as my first dove ever--Edmund.

[Print Tippler]

I guess i will have to wait till next year, But yeah every time they landed on a telephone pole they would laugh. I had just gotten my doves and all i could see was that the wild ones were much larger. i think the laugh was identical just much louder. When they flew they would often glide a little bit. Next year ill have a video. Thanks about the doves. I should have kept them. Oh and your edmunds looks a little more blond in color, but you would probably be able to tell. i had 3 fawns/blond and 1 albino and 2 young squabs fawns.

[horseart4u]

well i was just saying there are alot of these ringneck, collard, eurasian doves around here and they are greyish not that tanish brown..so maybe they are mixes and they are a bit small to medium size..

[rudolph.est]

As a side note, I have 2 ringneck (barbary) dove males that someone (rather inconsiderately) gave me as a birthday gift. They share the loft with my racing pigeons, and have learned to trap, the same way the pigeons do. They also learned to use the trap as a two way entrance, since they are so much smaller than the pigeons.

When I open the loft for the homers, the ring-necks often fly out of the loft and flutter around cooing at the abundant African collared doves and laughing doves in the garden and on the roof. They usually trap as soon as I feed the homers, but some days they will spend the entire day outside, and trap after I get home from work. There are some cats in the neighbourhood as well as dogs in the garden (who try to catch the wild doves all the time), but these two have survived this regimen for months, and have even spent a night outside every now and then. They definitely do not become feral easily, but I believe they would survive and interbreed in a flock of other collared or laughing doves quite easily.

[Libis]

Originally Posted by rudolph.est

As a side note, I have 2 ringneck (barbary) dove males that someone (rather inconsiderately) gave me as a birthday gift. They share the loft with my racing pigeons, and have learned to trap, the same way the pigeons do. They also learned to use the trap as a two way entrance, since they are so much smaller than the pigeons.

When I open the loft for the homers, the ring-necks often fly out of the loft and flutter around cooing at the abundant African collared doves and laughing doves in the garden and on the roof. They usually trap as soon as I feed the homers, but some days they will spend the entire day outside, and trap after I get home from work. There are some cats in the neighbourhood as well as dogs in the garden (who try to catch the wild doves all the time), but these two have survived this regimen for months, and have even spent a night outside every now and then. They definitely do not become feral easily, but I believe they would survive and interbreed in a flock of other collared or laughing doves quite easily.

You're really lucky that they're following the pigeons around and that your pigeons don't pick on them. Oftentimes ringnecks get lost easily and then don't know how to forage. They wind up dead or half starved at a rescue or someone's doorstep fairly often. I don't know, it's nice for you that they are trapping, but I don't believe that they would become feral and continue to survive for as long as other dove species in the wild without some Eurasian blood hybridized into them (which is showing up in purchased ringnecks more often now.) I really think that an increase in Eurasian blood in some families is causing the ringneck to become a smarter/more robust bird.

[Print Tippler]

Libis, more birds can be let out than you think check out this youtube channel. He free flys parakeets, finches, diamond doves, parrots, cockatiels, love birds, crows, and acouple pigeons. Ive seen videos of a trap door and he just lets them out and the finches went out and came right back in. Theres other people who do it also. He also flys portable and lets them out in parks.

http://www.youtube.com/user/petrollers#p/a

[MaryOfExeter]

I would never intentionally release my ringnecks. I've had a few get out and I was lucky enough to catch most of them before they disappeared.

[Libis]

Originally Posted by Print Tippler

Libis, more birds can be let out than you think check out this youtube channel. He free flys parakeets, finches, diamond doves, parrots, cockatiels, love birds, crows, and acouple pigeons. Ive seen videos of a trap door and he just lets them out and the finches went out and came right back in. Theres other people who do it also. He also flys portable and lets them out in parks.

http://www.youtube.com/user/petrollers#p/a

I have seen this channel before I think he either has a special gift or fantastic luck. Normally, this is not a great idea, as Mary of Exeter also said. I know many people who have lost cockatiels and budgies in this way as well. This summer a close friend's budgie escaped and they only managed to find her after she had starved to death. She was only 2 houses down the street hidden deep in a bush. My mother lost the teil that she hand raised when he got out as well. Edmund the ringneck was found lost and starving with several other doves, presumably a misguided wedding release. (He went to the humane society, luckily, then to a friend's house, then to me.)

[Print Tippler]

I have to disagree that is wrong. I think most people who lose pet birds just lose them ignorantly. This person is actually training his birds. It looks like he knows what he is doing. So the fact that people have lost pet birds doesn't make free flying them wrong, otherwise people who fly young homes and let them out and they fly off would make free flying any pigeon also wrong. Sure its not good if you dont know what your doing, but if you train them and know what your doing, Its not any more wrong than letting pigeons out.

[Libis]

Originally Posted by Print Tippler

I have to disagree that is wrong. I think most people who lose pet birds just lose them ignorantly. This person is actually training his birds. It looks like he knows what he is doing. So the fact that people have lost pet birds doesn't make free flying them wrong, otherwise people who fly young homes and let them out and they fly off would make free flying any pigeon also wrong. Sure its not good if you dont know what your doing, but if you train them and know what your doing, Its not any more wrong than letting pigeons out.

Except that (homing) pigeons have exceptional homing ability. Ringnecks have been selectively bred for sacrifice and color (and in the last couple of hundred years conformation for show.) They don't have the instincts that a homer would. Many people on this forum will not even fly show pigeons. Ringnecks are much more domesticated than that. With fantastic training and a lot of luck you might get away with it as that man appears to be doing, but I would never free fly ringnecks or parrots. Especially in this hawk-filled state.

(Also, we do not know his fatality from predator rate. Here, if I flew finches, parakeets, and doves, most of them would be gone in a month from hawks. Even if I had pigeons, I'd be watching pretty closely whether it was even safe for them.)

[Libis]

Btw,I would consider free-flying crows because they are so smart, savvy, and haven't had their instincts bred out of them. That would be awesome. Ravens (white necked) would be even cooler.

[rudolph.est]

Originally Posted by Libis

Except that (homing) pigeons have exceptional homing ability.

Free flying birds do not need homing ability, just eyes. ;-) It is true that homers will find their way home from hundreds of kilometers, but I obviously don't expect my ringnecks to do the same. All birds have to have an instinct to get to their nests from feeding sites etc, and as such, I believe ALL birds can be free flown, as long as they are trained correctly.

Originally Posted by Libis

Ringnecks have been selectively bred for sacrifice and color (and in the last couple of hundred years conformation for show.) They don't have the instincts that a homer would. Many people on this forum will not even fly show pigeons. Ringnecks are much more domesticated than that.

If I am not mistaken, the pigeon was domesticated before the ringneck and for the same reason as ringnecks (sacrifice, food). Pigeons have also been much more strenuously selectively bred than ringnecks. This does not mean that people don't let their starlings and archangels and fantails etc. free fly.

I do agree with your statement about predators, these captive birds did not learn to protect themselves against birds of prey or other predators and would be at a disadvantage if permanently released.

[Libis]

Originally Posted by rudolph.est

Free flying birds do not need homing ability, just eyes. ;-) It is true that homers will find their way home from hundreds of kilometers, but I obviously don't expect my ringnecks to do the same. All birds have to have an instinct to get to their nests from feeding sites etc, and as such, I believe ALL birds can be free flown, as long as they are trained correctly.



If I am not mistaken, the pigeon was domesticated before the ringneck and for the same reason as ringnecks (sacrifice, food). Pigeons have also been much more strenuously selectively bred than ringnecks. This does not mean that people don't let their starlings and archangels and fantails etc. free fly.

I do agree with your statement about predators, these captive birds did not learn to protect themselves against birds of prey or other predators and would be at a disadvantage if permanently released.

I still would not do it with a bird with poor homing capability. The idea seems very irresponsible.

The first time they get scared by a predator they would flee like they do when they hear a scary noise or see a sudden movement in the house (completely without thinking where they're headed--sometimes they even fly into walls. ) Once that ringneck (or parrot) gets a certain distance away they are going to have no idea where they are. In most places in the US, hawks are very prevalent. At least here, I know that any birds I free flew would have to know how to avoid predators and how to find home if they fled too far away. Maybe in the UK or somewhere like that you could get away with it better.
Knowing my birds individually, at least two of them would directly approach any predator and try to "make friends." (As they attempt to do in the house with any living creature.) The others would flee blindly.