A Reasonably Polite Invader in Hawai'i: The Zebra Dove

There is a cooing sound that starts the day in the lowland towns  of the Hawaiian Islands. It doesn't take long to identify the singer: it's the Zebra Dove (Geopelia striata). Even if one misses their morning song, they'll make themselves known as you try eating in a park or outside diner. They are one of the most common birds seen in Hawai'i.

The Zebra Dove arrived at the islands in 1922 in a shipment from Singapore. They are native over a wide swath of southeast Asia. They quickly established populations on all the islands almost to the point a being a nuisance (but most of them have been polite to me!).

Photo by Mrs. Geotripper

As almost always happens, I took practically no pictures of the single most common bird I saw during my recent trip! The first two pictures are from an earlier journey on Oahu, the third is from Mrs. Geotripper from the Kona area, and the fourth (below) is a shot I took at Kona as well.