Mourning Dove

No problem! Always glad to help a fellow bird enthusiast!

The two are hard to distinguish especially if the mourning happens to be a juvenile. However, there are a few key traits that distinguishes the former form the latter. Here's a common ground dove adult: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cRsk0vmZUu0/ULzBJI_YR7I/AAAAAAAABGM/wnDGJu3g6uY/s1600/Common_Ground-Dove_01.jpg and juvenile: http://www.outdooralabama.com/images/Image/CommonGroundDove.jpg Here's a mourning dove adult: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Zenaida_macroura_-California-8-2c.jpg and juvenile: http://www.greglasley.net/images/M/Mourning%20Dove%200037.jpg Now let's analyze some specific parts Based on proportions alone, you can clearly see that the mourning dove exhibits a head/neck:body:tail ratio of roughly 2:5:3 with the juvenile bird sporting a shorter tail coming down to more 2.5:5:2.5. Looking at the common ground dove in a similar pose, you can see the proportions are roughly 3:4:2. What I'm trying to say is the mourning doves proportionally exhibit a larger body and smaller head with a longer tail while a ground dove has a fairly large head and short tail. Your bird suggests the former. Another trait to not is the head shape where the mourning exhibits the square head top where the forehead angles downwards very distinctly while the ground dove's forehead slopes downwards giving it a more rounded appearance. The bill color is another thing. Ground doves have red bills while mournings have black bills. However, young birds of both species sport dark bills so this trait isn't really telling. The most distinguishing traits are in the plumage. Based on color alone, the two birds are very similar but you can tell that the adult ground dove exhibits a gradient from greenish grey to fawn from back to belly while the mourning stays more or less uniform with darker wings like your bird. There is a scaling appearance only in the ground dove as an adult but only on the head and neck. Juvenile mournings also exhibit scaling which is more notable on the wings and the front of the breast like in your bird. Another thing is the arrangement of the spots. The ground dove exhibits spotting on the secondary coverts and marginal coverts with everywhere else clean. The adult mourning is similar but the juvenile exhibits extensive spotting that extends all the way to the scapulars like in your bird. Finally, the most telling trait is how the wing looks when folded up. The ground dove has primaries that barely extend beyond the secondaries while the primary of the mourning extends well beyond the secondaries, which is demonstrated clearly in your picture. Now the only anomaly is the cheek spot. However, in juvenile birds, the spot is not as apparent. Therefore, I still believe it's a juvenile mourning dove...

The tail length, lack of scaling I. The head and neck, bill color and general proportions suggest mourning dove for sure

Hey Hema, that is a good point, but I don't see the scales on the back of the neck. I still think it is a Mourning Dove, but not fully certain. The front of the bird would definitely help.

I think it is just a Mourning Dove yet I don't see a distinct black spotting on its neck, but it may be covered. Though to be honest I have not seen a Dove hybrid before.