Errors generated when determining the sex of mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) from plumage characteristics and their effect on sex ratio projections from banded and shot samples were evaluated in a 2-year study in Louisiana. Error rates (percentage misclassified) of 3.8% and 5.0% were obtained from a sample of 236 banded and 1,820 hunter-killed doves, respectively. Converting data to sex ratios produced actual error rates of 13. I% for the banded sample and 1.1% for doves killed by hunters. No significant differences were detected in ability to determine sex in doves from plumage characteristics between sex, age, year, or status (livel-dead) classes. However, there was a significant sex X age interaction. An evaluation of the effectiveness ofthe 2 main methods of externally determining sex of mourning doves indicated that error rates when using either head or breast characteristics alone were approximately equal but higher than when using a combination of the 2 characteristics.
