Instructions
Observe baby white-winged doves while they are still in the nest. A newly hatched dove will have no feathers. By the fifth day, the baby will have begun to develop small feather starts, called pin feathers, which look like the shaft of a fully developed feather. If pin feathers are present, the bird is under 15 days old. If a squab with fully developed flight feathers is in the nest, it is between 15 and 45 days old.
Evaluate the primary feathers of birds that have left the nest. In juvenile birds that are under three years old, the primary feathers will have a lightly colored, smooth margin. In adults, the primary feathers will have margins that are frayed and dark.
Watch the bird to determine if the last of the primary feather falls off during molting by early May. If the last primary feather falls after the first week of May, the bird is a hatchling that was born in the current year. If the last feather drops before early May, the bird was born in the previous year.
Look for a patch of blue around the bird's eye and a dark mark on the lower part of the face. These marks are present only in adults. Juveniles will be grayer than the adult birds and will not have these distinguishing marks
How to Determine the Age of White-Winged Doves
The white-winged dove has a range that extends from the southwestern United States through Mexico and Central America. White-winged doves are brownish-gray pigeons with a bold white wing patch. The birds are migratory and spend the winter in Mexico and Central America. They live in both woodland areas and in the desert, and produce a stick nest with several eggs during each year's breeding season. Although the specific age of an adult is difficult to pinpoint, there are several ways to determine the age of hatchlings and juveniles.