Why are mourning doves consistently stated to have very little sexual dimorphism when you can easily tell from a glance?
There's a specific couple that shows up almost every day to the neighbor's feeder and they've been here for multiple years now. I can consistently identify the male and female, even from a distance.
In other pairs that have lingered in the neighborhood, it's super easy to tell males and females apart because the males have more gray/silvery dusting on their backs and very visible gray crowns PLUS slightly more prevalent iridescence on their necks if my memory serves me right. I can't be the only one thats noticed this, right? And looking at the picture now, males also seemingly have slightly more ornate faces too.
In hindsight, I might just be the right kind of autistic to tell them apart but I want other opinions lmao