The kids and I can't wait til the season opens, but I was hoping for help in teaching them how to identify doves from other birds.

Is there anything online for them to look at before we head out?

Texican,
I don't know if this will help but it is a short video and kid friendly...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdjr8j_how-to-identify-birds-the-mourning_school

I always sit with my buddies that are new to the sport and talk to them while we hunt pointing out the differences and size of doves compared to other doves. Sounds silly, but I always tell them that doves appear to fly more eloquently and less sporadic than other birds in the field. you might want to go to youtube as well and see if there are any good dove hunting videos on there and show them and point out the way they fly compared to other birds...but what the heck do I know...good luck

Here you go. Covers every species of Dove in Texas.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publication/pwdpubs/media/pwd_lf_w7000_0047.pdf

Eurasians/ring necks make the craa craa noise when they come in to land. They are a light grey color and tend to be the bigger of the species. White wings have a white stripe on each wing. They also are very stealthy and the only thing youll hear when they come in is the wind from the wings. Mourning dove make a noise that comes from the wings that are a high pitch whistle noise.

I learned to identify birds on the wing from my buddies as a kid. Nothing like peer pressure/ribbing when you ID the wrong bird. You could go to most city parks with your kids and point out doves from other birds. Doesn't take children long, with their sharp eyes, to learn the difference. Hope ya'll have a great time.

Those pics making me hungry.

Thanks for the links and the pics! That'll work great.

There are dove all over the place in the city, best thing to do is start ID'n dove now when you are not hunting, driving around. Just don't crash your truck looking at birds.

I always try to tell people about the size and then the way they fly..it takes a while to recognize it the first few times, but doves fly with a purpose...usually the only other birds I see while hunting are black birds or maybe a mockingbird and those dam little swallow looking things..well, the swallows are way smaller than a dove so that's knocked out...then the blackbirds and mockingbirds that I usually see fly slow and in a straight line, and sort of fly for a couple secs and then sort of drop down as if to rest their wings, and then go back up again. Hard to describe, but seeing a few doves coming by you at 30mph+ let's you know it's a dove.

Put a bird feeder out, you will get a lot of dove.

With South zone opening so late and time constraints, the only chance i will have to kill birds on the lease will be Eurasians. Not going to shoot though until i feel confident enough to ID them when they are flying. Lots of dove there, but still need to get better at IDing them quick enough to get a shot off and not kill a mourning or white wing. GW sure knows the difference so no room for mistakes.