Mourning dove

Physical features

• Mourning doves have a rounded body shape with a long, think, pointed tail. The head looks small in comparison to the body. The beak is black and thin. Legs and feet are a pinkish color.

• They have an overall buffy tan color to help blend in with open country surroundings. Their wings have black spots on the wings and black-bordered wing tips to the tail feathers.

• The fan-shaped tail makes a whistling sound while they are in flight.

• Male mourning doves are slightly larger than females. Males also have slightly brighter colors with a pinkish hue on the chest and bluish gray on the top of the head.

• They weigh around 130 grams, which is less than 1/3 of a pound. They are less than a foot in height.

Diet

• Wild – seeds, grasses, weeds, berries

• Zoo – grains, greens, seeds, fruit

• Feeds on the ground and will show up at backyard feeders to forage for seeds below.

• Grit, sand and gravel is ingested and held in the grizzard to help grind up food.

Reproduction

• Breeding season is February to October, making it the longest breeding season of any North American bird. They are monogamous with some pairs staying together through the winter.

• Males perform an aerial courtship display with noisy wingbeats. He will approach females on the ground with his chest puffed up, bowing, and making a coo-ing vocalization. Males also choose and defend their favorite “coo-ing perches.”

• The male will find potential nest sites and the female will choose one. The male will bring her building materials as she creates the nest. The nest is built from twigs in a tree, shrub, edge of a building, or on the ground. They will also utilize nests previously built and used by other birds or animals.

• Female mourning doves lay two small white eggs in an open nest. Incubation period is around 14 days.

• Open structure of the nests makes them easy targets for predators such as blue jays, grackles, crows, domestic cats, red squirrels, and rat snakes.

• Both parents will feed “crop milk,” made up of the cells sloughed from the parents’ own crop walls, to the chicks. The crop is located at the base of the neck and is part of the digestive system.

• Chicks can leave the nest at 15 days old but will stay nearby to continue to be fed by the parents for another one to two weeks.

• Mourning doves can breed at 85 days old. A single pair can breed and raise five or six broods in one year in the warmer parts of their range.

Interpretive Information

• Mourning doves are in the pigeon family.

• As they consume large amounts of seeds, mourning doves act as seed dispersers in their ecosystems.

• Their recognizable “mourning” coo-ing is a familiar sound to most as it is one of our most common birds. The sound is made by puffing up the throat, but they do not open their bill.

Updated June 2018