Zebra dove

Description:

I spied many of these long tailed doves with blue around the eye. Around a dozen birds congregated on a large lava rock and were watching me carefully as I snapped their photos from a distance.

Habitat:

The native range extends from Burma to Malaysia to Sumatra and Java. Feral populations are well established elsewhere, including the Hawaiian islands, where it is abundant. These individuals were spotted on the vast lava fields of Kalapana.

Notes:

In 1986, the town of Kalapana was destroyed by a lava flow that left desolate lava fields. Not much grows there, and the only birds I spotted around were the zebra doves.