Migratory Pollinators Program

Figure 2.

Figure 2. Composition of the diet of western white-winged doves at the Sand Tank Mountains (Barry Goldwater bombing range, Pima County) and the Little Ajo Mountains (Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge, Pima County) in Arizona. At the Sand Tank Mountains, diet was analyzed from crop contents of 911 birds captured from 30 April to 15 September 1999. At the Little Ajo Mountains, diet was analyzed from crop contents of 148 birds captured from 11 April to 31 August in 1984 and 1985. Crop contents were freeze-dried and their components were weighed separately. Note that saguaro fruit was the most frequent item found in diets of white-winged doves (>60% of all crops contained saguaro fruit). The dry mass of saguaro fruit found per crop was also much higher than that of other seeds. The 8-9 species listed in this figure accounted for 92 percent of the total dry mass found in dove crops at each site. Saguaro accounted for 55 percent of this mass. Note the preponderance of perennial large-seeded plants in the doves' diet. The only annual plants included in large frequencies in the diet of white-winged doves were Amsinckia tesselata, Escholtzia minutiflora, Lupinus concinnus, and Kallstroemia sp.