20. Red-Eyed Dove The call of this dove is usually described as sounding like someone saying, over and over again, “I am a Red-Eyed Dove, I am a Red-Eyed Dove, I am…(etc.)” which is very helpful if you’re having trouble distinguishing the calls of different doves. It’s only partly true, of course, since the Red-Eyed Dove’s eye is not very red, at least when seen from far: much less red, anyway, or at least less obviously red, in my experience, than that of the Mourning Collared Dove which is otherwise rather confusingly similar in appearance. A number of doves seem to tell us their own names in their calls: the Ring-Necked Dove is said to say “Ring- Necked Dove, Ring-Necked Dove…(etc.), though some claim that what it says is “work harder, work harder”, which perhaps tells us more about the listener than the bird itself. The call of the Mourning Collared Dove, by the way, is described as being a “cheerful descending rolling churr rrrrrooooo...”, which sounds rather cheerfully unlike actual mourning (though allowance must always be made for cultural differences in these matters). Birds of AFRICAMA House 44 Birds of AFRICAMA House 45