Zebra Dove : The Most beautiful Singer Dove

Zebra dove or barred dove that has beautiful song in the world is very expensive in Thailand, Malaysia, and Philippine, and Indonesia. There are numerous Zebra dove on those areas.

Zebra dove performance is not beautiful. They have zebra-like color gray and brown. The iris of the bird are various such as yellow, blue, and green. The length is not more than 20-23 cm. There is albino zebra dove with red iris eye. The unique albino price is very expensive.

Photo by Oggie dog
The beak is straight at curfew at the edge. The feet are in color like most doves feet. This dove is solitaire dove unlike other dove that lives in a group.

The habitat of the bird is secondary jungle, savanna, and farm crop. It likes seed, grain, and small insect. In farm, the breeder feed them with high quality seed such as paddy, millet, black seed, red rice, ketan, and others. Cuttlefish bone that contains calcium is also good for this bird. Some breeder also mixes the seed with honey and chicken eggs. Some Java people make traditional medicine so the bird can sing beautiful. The hobbyist put the bird at high place so people can hear the song.

The female can lay one or two eggs in a clutch. Both male and female will hatch and care the bird until they can independent.  In the farm, the breeder do not let zebra dove to hatch and care their eggs. The breeder want the zebra dove lays eggs only. They will take the eggs and give it to ring-necked dove. The eggs will hatch in 17-19 days. The ring necked dove will care the zebra dove kid for one to one a half month.

Zebra dove are raise in big farm intensively. The owner selects the best breed from the champion zebra dove. The breeder believes that the champion will bear the champion too.  Surely, the breeder also selects the good female that can sing beautiful.

The hobbyist often organized zebra dove championship before avian flu H5N1. The winner of the championship could get prize and it price increase to thousands dollar. A hobbyist dares to barter SUV car with zebra dove champion. The avian flu has crushed this business. We find rarely any zebra dove contest today. The breeder also cannot sell much zebra dove as much as before avian flu. They do not expand the business. Some breeders prefer to close the farm because they cannot stand to finance the operational costs.

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