However, wholesale clearing of the land destroyed most of the scrub woodlands used for nesting and, according to one source, hordes of hunters had contests to see who could kill the most birds. By 1930, the population had begun to decline. Increasing crop diversity, periodic freezes that killed old groves, and saturation spraying with pesticides and herbicides subsequently took a heavy toll. Although the dove population will never again reach its former numbers, the white wing remains a popular game bird in South Texas and tracts of land are being purchased to serve as refuges for doves and other declining species. The white-winged dove is a summer resident north to Uvalde, San Antonio and Beeville and ranges along the Rio Grande to El Paso and westward through the desert Southwest.
Most white wings spend the winter far southward in Central America.
Large populations now exist in San Antonio and Austin and range expansion continues. The wing-patches, however, show only as narrow white lines on the folded wings of perching birds. There are several variations of the loud, low-pitched cooing calls. White-winged doves nest singly or in colonies, building their crude stick nests in mesquite, citrus or other leafy trees. Farther west, they colonize the saguaro-paloverde desert scrub, and they move freely into towns.