About
the size of a domestic pigeon, adult bandtails
average just a little less than 8 ounces
in weight, the females weighing about 0.8
ounces less than the males. Both sexes have
an overall blue-gray appearance, and it is
only after close inspection that one notices
the male's rosier breast and more iridescence
on the nape of the neck; otherwise, the sexes
are similar. In autumn, adults can be differentiated
from their young by the adult's chrome-yellow
bills and feet, white crescent at the nape
of the neck, and the dark gray band across
the top of the tail that gives the bird its
name.
Natural History
Bandtails are birds of the mountains and usually nest in mixed conifer
forests, ponderosa pine forests, or in dense stands of evergreen oaks and
pines between 4,500 and 9,100 feet elevation. As migratory birds, bandtails
are usually only present in Arizona from late March thorough mid-October.
Breeding generally takes place sometime in May and may continue through
the summer, with some birds nesting twice and even three times in some
years. The normal clutch is one glossy white egg, or occasionally two,
so that the species' reproductive potential is low. After feeding on acorns
and other fall mast crops, most Arizona bandtails migrate southward to
the Sierra Madre Occidental in Mexico to spend the winter months.
Hunting and Trapping History
Bandtail hunting has an erratic history in Arizona. After the season was
closed in 1951 for a perceived lack of birds, interest in band-tailed pigeons
waned until a study was initiated in the "four-corner" states of Arizona,
New Mexico, Colorado and Utah in the 1960s. These studies included an experimental
season, which opened in 1968, and continued through 1972. Hunt information
showed a limited but dedicated interest in the band-tailed pigeon as a
game bird with the maximum number of hunters and birds harvested being
1,067 hunters and 3,545 pigeons in 1970. The numbers of both pigeons and
pigeon hunters has since fallen off with only 146 bandtails reportedly
taken in 1996. Now it appears that band-tailed pigeon numbers may again
be inching upward.
About
the size of a domestic pigeon, adult bandtails
average just a little less than 8 ounces
in weight, the females weighing about 0.8
ounces less than the males. Both sexes have
an overall blue-gray appearance, and it is
only after close inspection that one notices
the male's rosier breast and more iridescence
on the nape of the neck; otherwise, the sexes
are similar. In autumn, adults can be differentiated
from their young by the adult's chrome-yellow
bills and feet, white crescent at the nape
of the neck, and the dark gray band across
the top of the tail that gives the bird its
name.
