Mourning Doves

The Mourning Dove is a frequent visitor to backyards—and for good reason. It is the most abundant and widespread dove, and it is found in a wide variety of habitats.

You can find them at some point in the year in all continental states and in Canada and Mexico. You'll see them perched on telephone wires, on bare ground or in fields. The only place you may not see them is in deep forests.

The Mourning Dove is about 12 inches long with a trim body and a small head. The long tail tapers to a point, which is unique among North American doves. The tail feathers are black, bordered with white tips. Most obvious is the beige-colored body with black spots on the upper wings and a pinkish wash below. The legs and feet are reddish.

The bird flies fast on strong wingbeats, sometimes making swift ascents or descents with quick turns or dodges, its pointed tail stretching behind it. Wings produce a fluttering whistle as the bird takes flight.

Seeds make up 99 percent of the Mourning Dove's diet, including grains and even peanuts, as well as wild grasses, weeds, herbs and occasionally berries. They sometimes eat small snails. Mourning Doves eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day! A 180-pound man would have to eat 342 hard boiled eggs each day to match that food intake.

Mourning Doves tend to feed on the ground but we have seen them on platform feeders or trying to get on small tube or hopper feeders too. They will swallow seeds and store them in an enlargement of the esophagus, called a crop. Once they have filled it (the record is 17,500 bluegrass seeds in a single crop!), they fly to a safe perch to digest the meal.

Unique among birds, Mourning Doves drink without lifting their heads. Instead they use their beak as a straw.

Their nests are almost pathetic. They are a flimsy assembly of twigs, pine needles and grass stems about 8 inches across. There is little insulation for the young. So flimsy are the nests that they often fall apart during a strong wind or rainstorm. But Mourning Doves also have five or six broods per year, incubating one batch of eggs while feeding fledglings. Generally two eggs are laid at a time. Chicks are fed "crop milk" regurgitated from the adults.

Mourning Doves sometimes will use a hanging basket for their nesting site (which does the plant in the basket little good). The doves are persistent; sometimes it is easier to take a hanging basket, plant some inexpensive spider plants or ivy and just give it over to the birds.

The Mourning Dove is the most abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million birds, yet the Mourning Dove remains on the "least concern" list of the National Audubon Society's conservation list. The bird's population is estimated at 350 million.

To attract Mourning Doves to your backyard, supply them with safflower or white millet seed or sunflower chips. Scatter the seed on the ground or place it on a platform feeder. Dense trees or shrubs provide nesting sites. Keep cats indoors. The birds spend most of their time on the ground and are vulnerable to prowling cats.