I kept Chinese spotted dove (Laceneck dove) and breeding them for about 2 years until few years ago when I decide to concentrate in keeping and breeding white rumped shama so I sold them all. Recently, I get the urge to keep dove again and begin to get interest in zebra dove as this kind of dove also come from Asia, smaller than Chinese spotted dove, and the song is very nice. Not that I don't like Chinese spotted dove anymore (I still do love them), but it's kind of hard to find them or have to pay premium price for them, so does zebra dove.
Out of just pure luck, I drop by one of the local bird farm/wholesale and I saw 4 zebra doves in the same cage with close to hundred of diamond doves. When I ask for the price, I'm just surprise that the price for a pair of zebra dove is just almost twice the price of a pair common diamond dove. I decide to get all four zebra doves available, but when checking for sex, it seems that there is only one female out of the four and one presumed male has little defect on the legs (still able to perch and walk fine as normal). After having a little talk with the owner, I get some discount for the defected male :)
After bring home, within hour, three of four doves start to call. Both presumed female and male made the same call as seen on the clip below which contain presumed male and female zebra dove (female is on the right, male is on the left hand side).
This clip below show the other two presumed male zebra dove preening each other. Notice the one on the right has defected legs. If they are turn out be be male as the seller said, then I might do little special project of hybridization between male zebra dove and female red diamond dove, hehe...
