* Our Jerusalem *

Here are a few photos of 'our' Ringed Turtle Dove. Known to fanciers as the Ringneck Dove and universally as Streptopelia risoria, other common names include Laughing Dove, Barbary Dove, and Domestic Ringed Dove.
We first noticed him in our yard through the front porch window, in October of 2004. He was there every morning, perched in the mountain laurel that grows just outside. After the Mourning Doves arrived, he would fly down to join them and eat. While I stood just beneath him scattering their seed, he'd look down at me with those beautiful eyes and I'd tell him that he really should be more afraid...

We learned that doves of this kind are sold by breeders and in pet shops, that they've been domesticated for millennia, are tame or tamable, even when not hand raised, have lost most of their ability to survive predation in the wild, especially the lightest colored ones; that there are more than forty color mutations, and that magicians use the white ones in their acts. Also, they are not the doves that are supposed to be released at weddings, etc., because unlike the ones that are okay to release, which are white homing pigeons or rock doves, ringneck doves do not have a homing instinct, so they can get lost and end up at our house...

By now I was aware of the dangers to him as a domestic species and had made several attempts to rescue him, but each time he eluded me. In the end it was the sight of a Cooper's hawk perched up on our chimney top that froze him into a fear stance and allowed me to reach right out and put him inside my coat. Shortly after that it dawned on us... we'd adopted a dove... Then it dawned on us that we had a ready made environment for him, right on our porch, with lots of plants (those toxic to birds have since been removed, including the philodendron in the photo above), an 8 foot tall pine tree, where he loves to roost... an empty table in the northwest corner of the porch near where he'd perched outside, just waiting for a cage. I keep finding myself so grateful for the many ways that were prepared for this bird's arrival into our hearts and our lives...
He's sweet and happy and what a wonderful gift he has been...
And we know that he is a male, because we had a DNA test done.

His name is Jerusalem. Both my husband and sister echoed my desire by suggesting that I name him something that means peace. I wanted a name that had a 'Roo' sound in it as well, so that I could imitate the beautiful coo that he makes, whenever I'd say his name.
Jerusalem carries these meanings: vision of peace, foundation of peace, possession of peace, teaching of peace, and habitation of peace. It also has just enough of that 'Roo' sound in it, so well, you can imagine how I pronounce it, something like,
'Jeroosalem'.
Anyway, I mostly call him Coo or Roo, or CooCaRoo...
My husband calls him RooSki and sometimes, Chubbers (which I don't quite understand, because he's slender enough at 150 grams). We both call him CoosAlot, especially when he does, and The CooCaRooster or The RoosterRoo
but that's mainly in the mornings...