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In Da Woods

by Melanie B. Fullman, US Forest Service

Doves: More than Meets the Eye

They are almost always here, on the ground beneath our feeders in the winter and on the roof every summer’s eve. I guess I ignore them because they are so common. So it was with just a passing glance that I noticed one the other day sitting on our deck, preening. The sunlight must have been “just right” as I saw, for the first time perhaps, the soft bright colors of the tail and wings, the streamlined shape of the body, and the grace with which it conducted itself. I was amazed and a tad bit embarrassed for having discounted it (them) for so long.

Bountiful Beauty

I know you’ve seen them, so I won’t spend much time on the description: mourning doves have long, pointed tail, short legs, and a head that looks a bit small in comparison to their body. They are much more slender than a rock dove (pigeon) and are the only North American dove with a pointy tail. They weigh less than 6 oz., are about a foot long, and have a wingspan of 18”. Coloring is a delicate brown to buffy-tan, with black spots on the wings and white tips on the tail.

The swept back wing design is similar to that of falcons, enabling them to fly very FAST and maneuver quickly, making sudden climbs, descents, and dodges (sometimes to escape the aforementioned falcons). Flight speeds can exceed 50 mph.

Seeds from grain, peanuts, grass, trees (including acorns and pine nuts), weeds, and herbs are 99% of a Mourning Dove’s diet. They also eat berries and snails. They feed exclusively on the ground, pecking or pushing aside ground litter, but not really ‘scratching’ like chickens. If bird feeders are present, mourning doves congregate below, picking up dropped seeds and fallen bits.

The food is “swallowed” into a pouch in their esophagus, called a crop. Once the crop is filled (the record is 17,200 bluegrass seeds!), they fly to a safe perch to digest their meal. To stay healthy, mourning doves must eat 12-20%, about 71 calories, of their body weight every day.

Mourning doves are unique in that they can drink brackish water, containing almost half the salt level of sea water, without becoming dehydrated. This allows them to live in deserts, drinking water that would harm, or kill, many other animals.

As a habitat generalist, mourning doves have generally benefited from human changes to the North American landscape. They live nearly everywhere now except deep woods. Look for them in open country with scattered trees, forest edges, fields, parks, and on roofs and telephone wires in cities. Males may have a favorite “cooing” perch that they defend from other males.

The US population of mourning doves is currently estimated at 350 million. Hunters harvest about 20 million per year, making them the most hunted species in North America – actually more than the annual harvest of all other migratory game birds combined.

Although they are appear to be doing fine in the face of this pressure, their foraging style puts them at risk of additional ‘lead poisoning’ - from eating lead shot pellets. Studies have found this problem worse around fields planted to attract, and hunt, doves; about 1 in 20 wind up eating lead. Natural predators include raccoons, hawks, owls, jays, squirrels, and snakes.

Life & Times

Mourning doves mate for life, which ranges from a mere 12 months to 10 years; the oldest known Mourning Dove was 31. Members of a pair keep their bond strong by preening each other with gentle nibbles around the neck, grasping beaks, and bobbing their heads up and down in unison.

Nests are a flimsy assemblage of pine needles, twigs, and grass stems, unlined and with little insulation for their young. Both mates help build the nest, with the male passing twigs to the female, while standing on her back; she then weaves them into a nest about 8” across. Doves will use existing nests, and don’t seem particular whether it was their own.

Nests are most often built in dense foliage on a tree branch. In the west, they frequently nest on the ground and in urban area, in gutters, eaves, and abandoned equipment. Simple nest baskets to attract doves to your backyard are easy to make: birds.cornell.edu/nestinginfo/downloads then select Nesting Shelves & Platforms, or call me and I’ll send them to you (932-1330 x539).

Two, white eggs are incubated for 14 days, with the young leaving the nest in 2-3 weeks. The male usually incubates the egg during the day and the female at night. Under favorable weather conditions, adults may re-breed and raise a new clutch every 30 or so days for 3+ months. Both adults feed newly their hatched young “milk”, a unique secretion of the cells of the crop wall.

During the breeding season, you may see three mourning doves flying in tight formation, one after another. The bird in the lead is generally the male of a mated pair. The second bird is an unmated male with high hopes, chasing rivals from the area where he hopes to nest. The third is usually the female of the mated pair, following along for, apparently, the entertainment.

Mourning doves are partial migrants: most breeding populations in northern latitudes migrate, while those living in the central and southern US often live there year-round. Northern birds often fly thousands of miles, as far as southern Mexico, between their wintering and breeding grounds.

Whistling Wings

In addition to the soft, drawn-out, and mournful “cooo, cooo, coo”, you might have noticed a sharp whistling sound they make as they fly. This is due to air moving rapidly across a narrow outer feather on the wing, in the same manner as sounds produced by blowing a whistle or flute. Since pigeons and doves do not make vocal alarm calls, scientists have long wondered if the wing whistle serves that purpose instead, varying somehow in is length, strength, or volume depending on the circumstances. After all, frightened birds take off faster and at a steeper angle than a calm bird moving from place to place.

Researchers found the sound of the wing whistle of startled birds was louder and faster than normal birds (listen to both at http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/feature/data/wingsound.wav). When normal wing whistles were played to flocks of feeding pigeons, none responded. But when the same flocks heard the wing whistle of startled birds, 11 of 15 flew off. The test was adjusted to account for the greater volume in startled departures. As a result, scientists recently concluded that it is the faster tempo of the startled wing whistle, not the loudness that signals alarm. Something to listen for on your next outing or while tending your yard.

Hope to see YOU in the woods, and in the fields, too.

Polar Bear Cookbook

Thank you to everyone who submitted recipes for the Polar Bear Hockey Cookbook. The cookbooks are now available. The cost for the cookbooks are $10.00 so make sure to grab one for yourself and maybe one or two as a gift. They can be purchased at the Pat O'Donnel Civic Center concession stand or by contacting Kerry Roehm or Micki Sorensen.

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