What would happen if a morning dove..?

Question

What would happen if a morning dove had babies with a ring necked dove?

Could this make the babies un-natural, like could problems ocure with breeding them because this person wanted to do this with his birds, he wanted some pretty doves that no one else could have.

I have seen a photo of a part morning dove & part ring neck dove but it looked pretty much like a morning dove to me.

Answer 1

Species often cross breed in nature. Right here in North America, Pin Tailed ducks and Mallards regular cross breed. Many species of grouse will cross breed as do wolves and coyotes where their ranges meet. Whales will mate across species as well. There's been several sightings of spotted and bottle nosed babies. Killer whales have been found with part pilot whale babies. Most of these crossings are infertile and if they are, the males are almost always infertile. Some hybrid parrot hens can produce offspring. The red factor and apricot canaries are the result of fertile crossings between the red headed siskin and the wild canary :-) . Most crosses are really neat to look at. I love looking at Catalana macaws which is a hybrid between two large macaw species.

More than likely your birds would have no problems producing offspring but the offspring won't be able to breed. When they hit sexual maturity they'll be a mix of the two species mating styles. Same with their colors. A Female hybrid will share the same female colors of both species. The males will do the same. Some hybrid partridges will do all the dancing and thrumming of their dad but will toss in vocal calls of a male of their mom's species. It gets pretty weird!

Personally I have no problems with hybridization as long as the breeder knows what they're doing and they help keep other species 'pure'. If you sell the chicks, be honest with the person buying the babies and admit what they are. With stuff like this you want to keep accurate breeding records, even if you want to try this 'just once' :-) .

Oh.. and this you'll find interesting - if a female mule was bred with a stallion and she had a foal, the foal would be 100% horse!

Good luck!

Answer 2

I have a pigeon (columba livia) that bred with a ring-necked dove (Streptopelia risoria), and they had one chick, which looks halfway between the two. The normal clutch size for both species is 2. The chick was perfectly healthy and is now 2 or 3 years old. When cross-breeding between species, there is generally infertility or decreased fertility, but otherwise they are fine. The mule, a cross between horse and donkey, is an example.
Usually two different species can't reproduce together, but there are these exceptions.
I would not have thought a pigeon could breed with a ring-necked dove, but they did.
The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) looks quite similar to the ring-necked dove at a distance, and are nearer the same size than ring-necked and pigeon. But the tail feathers are different. Also, wings of a mourning dove make a whistling sound when it flies.

Answer 3

If he is successful he will have health baby birds, but I think he is going to find it a little more difficult than he thinks to get this match together. Good luck to you and I hope he works it out. That would be kool!