Mourning Dove
by Kathy White
Title
Mourning Dove
Artist
Kathy White
Medium
Photograph - Photography--greeting Cards Or Notes Are Cheaper By The Dozen!
Description
I took this photo of a mourning dove in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Mourning Dove is a member of the dove family. The bird is also called the Turtle Dove or the American Mourning Dove or Rain Dove, and formerly was known as the Carolina Pigeon or Carolina Turtledove.
A graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; their flight is fast and bullet straight. Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying. Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America.
Mourning Doves often match their open-country surroundings. The Doves are usually a Medium-sized dove with gray-brown upperparts and pink-brown underparts. The doves are dark with a small, black spot beneath. Their bill is dark. Wings are gray-brown with black spots and dark primaries. Tail is long and pointed with black-edged white tips on outer feathers. The male dove has a pale blue tinted crown and a pink washed chest, shows some iridescence on neck. The female dove is duller and the juvenile has heavy spotting and scaled effect on wings.
Mourning Doves breed from southeastern Alaska, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick southward to Mexico and Panama. They spend winters north to the northern U.S. Favorite habitats for the doves include open fields, parks, and lawns with many trees and shrubs.
Two white eggs are laid in a loosely made nest constructed of sticks and twigs and built in a low bush or tree, or sometimes on the ground. The eggs are incubated for 14 days by both parents.
Mourning doves eat seeds, waste grain, fruits, and insects, Usually foraging on the ground, but occasionally in trees and shrubs. They also will readily eat Cracked Corn, Sunflower Seed, Nuts, Milo, Thistle.
Mourning Doves emit a low, mournful "coo-ah, coo, coo, coo." sound which resembles a mournful, sad sound. Mourning Doves fly fast on powerful wingbeats, sometimes making sudden ascents, descents, and dodges, their pointed tails stretching behind them. You can see Mourning Doves nearly anywhere except the deep woods. Look for them in fields or patches of bare ground, or on overhead perches like telephone wires.
During the breeding season, you might see three Mourning Doves flying in tight formation, one after another. This is a form of social display. Typically the bird in the lead is the male of a mated pair. The second bird is an unmated male chasing his rival from the area where he hopes to nest. The third is the female of the mated pair, which seems to go along for the ride.
Mourning Doves tend to feed busily on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in an enlargement of the esophagus called the crop. Once they’ve filled it (the record is 17,200 bluegrass seeds in a single crop!), they can fly to a safe perch to digest the meal.
The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million, but the Mourning Dove remains one of our most abundant birds with a U.S. population estimated at 350 million. The oldest known Mourning Dove was 31 years 4 months old.
Uploaded
May 11th, 2013
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