The mournful cooing of the Mourning Dove is a familiar sound across much of North America. These slender, long-tailed doves are common across the continent, with their soothing call bringing a sense of calm to backyards and open fields. Mourning Doves get their name from their haunting vocalizations, which sound like laments.

Overview of the Mourning Dove

The Mourning Dove is a medium-sized, slender dove with a long, tapered tail. Its body is light gray-brown overall with black spots on the wings. The underside of the wing is lighter and the tail has white edges. The head is rounded with black eyes. The legs are reddish pink.

Mourning Doves measure 9-13 inches in length with a wingspan of 15-19 inches. They weigh approximately 4.3 ounces on average. Males and females have similar plumage, although the male may have more colorful iridescence on the neck feathers.

Range and Habitat

Mourning Doves have an extremely wide range, breeding in all the lower 48 states, southern Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Their habitat is open and semi-open areas including woodland edges, roadsides, suburbs, and farms. They avoid dense forest but are comfortable in urban and suburban neighborhoods with trees.

Mourning Doves can be found across a variety of elevations from sea level up to 13,000 feet in some mountain locations. They do migrate short distances to avoid the harshest cold weather in the northernmost parts of their range. Their winter range extends south throughout Mexico and into Panama.

Diet and Feeding Behavior

Mourning Doves have a predominantly seed-based diet. They forage on bare ground, plucking a variety of small seeds and occasionally nipping off pieces of green vegetation. Common foods include millet, wheat, corn, sesame, peas, sunflower seeds, and acorns. Mourning Doves do not scratch or dig for food.

These birds can eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day. They swallow seeds whole, storing them in an esophageal pouch, then grind the food in their muscular gizzard. Mourning Doves drink water regularly when available.

Feeding peaks occur in early morning and late afternoon. Mourning Doves usually feed peacefully in small groups with birds taking turns keeping watch for predators.

Nesting and Reproduction

The breeding season for Mourning Doves extends from March to September across their range, with peak activity from April to June. Males court females by flying up steeply and then diving while making a whistling sound with the wings.

Mourning Doves are monogamous and pairs mate for life, often raising multiple broods in a single season. The male selects the nest site and the female builds the nest. Nests are fragile platforms of twigs, stems, and grasses placed in trees, shrubs, or on manmade structures.

Females lay 1-3 eggs that incubate for 14 days until hatching. Both parents feed the nestlings regurgitated “crop milk” for the first few days after hatching. The young leave the nest at 14-15 days old and reach full independence after another 7-14 days.

Mourning Doves may raise up to six broods per year in the southern parts of their range. The average lifespan in the wild is 1-2 years, with the oldest recorded age being 13 years.

Identifying the Mourning Dove

The Mourning Dove’s slender build, long tail, and muted gray plumage make it easily identifiable, even from a distance. Here are some tips for visual and aural identification:

Small head, plump body – Gray-brown overall with a small rounded head and a plump, smooth-looking body. The wings have black spotting.
Long, pointed tail – Distinctive feature is the long, tapered tail with white tips to the outer feathers. The tail may measure up to 8 inches in length.
Swift, darting flight – Mourning Doves fly swiftly on pointed wings, with rapid wingbeats interspersed with graceful glides. Their flight pattern is quick and darting.
Cooing song – The male’s song is a soft, plaintive coo-oo, coo, coo, coo, usually repeated multiple times. Also makes a harsh kuk when taking flight.
Reddish feet – Legs are short and reddish pink. The toes are slender.
Iridescent neck – Males have iridescent purple-pink patches on the neck feathers that catch the light. Females are more plain and lack iridescence.
Ground foraging style – Walks on open ground while bobbing its head, searching for seeds. Doesn’t scratch or dig.

So in summary, look for the small rounded head, long graduated tail, black-spotted wings, swift graceful flight, mournful cooing song, reddish feet, and ground foraging habits.

Common Behaviors of Mourning Doves

Mourning Doves exhibit some characteristic behaviors that can help identify them and shed light on their lifestyle. Here are some of the most notable behaviors:

Perching and Sunning

Mourning Doves like to perch on wires, fence rails, branches, or raised vantage points where they can sun themselves before and after feeding. Sunning helps regulate body temperature and dry feathers. Doves change position frequently to expose all sides to the sun’s warmth.

Dust Bathing

Mourning Doves frequently dust bathe to clean their feathers and ward off ectoparasites. They squat or roll in loose, dusty soil, then shake off the dust and preen feathers. They may flutter wings to scatter dust through the plumage.

Drinking and Billing

Doves sip water delicately, immersing just their beak. Mates also “bill” by touching beaks affectionately. Nestlings stroke parent’s beak to stimulate feeding.

Bowing and Crouching

When approached, doves may give an exaggerated bow while crouching with the head lowered. This signals submission or alarm. The wings may be spread to maintain balance.

Taking Flight

Prior to flight, doves utter a harsh “kuk” sound. Their wings make a loud whirring noise when taking off. Once airborne, the wings make a quiet whistling noise that serves to communicate with other doves.

Roosting

Doves roost communally in trees or on protected ledges. The birds settle close together at night, lined up in the same direction. Their body heat and huddled posture provide shared warmth.

Unique Adaptations of the Mourning Dove

Over millions of years, Mourning Doves have evolved special physical and behavioral adaptations that aid their survival. Some of their notable evolutionary adaptations include:

Camouflage Plumage

The dove’s gray, brown, and black mottled plumage provides excellent camouflage whether roosting, nesting, or foraging on the ground. This helps conceal the birds from predators.

Ground Feeding Adaptations

Mourning Doves lack raptor-like talons for grabbing prey or songbird-like feet for perching. Their slender toes and short legs are perfect for walking on the ground while feeding on seeds.

Crop Milk

Both male and female doves produce crop milk, a secretion from the crop lining that contains fat, protein, and immune substances. This nutritious substance sustains newly hatched chicks.

Needle-like Beak

The long, tapering, needle-like beak allows Mourning Doves to snap up tiny seeds with precision. The muscular gizzard helps grind food.

Evasive Flight

When startled, Mourning Doves burst into swift flight using rapid wing beats and reaching speeds of up to 55 mph. Their pointed wings provide speed and agility to escape predators.

High Reproductive Rate

Mourning Doves lay up to 6 broods per year. This high reproductive rate compensates for short lifespan and high predation rates, ensuring survival of the species.

Flocking Behavior

Foraging and roosting in flocks provides safety in numbers. The birds can alert each other to danger and benefit from shared vigilance.

Unique Vocalizations and Displays

Mourning Doves communicate in various ways, using vocalizations, physical displays, and flight behaviors. Here are some of the unique ways they signal different messages:

Advertisement Coos

The male’s rhythmic, mournful cooing advertises his presence to females and proclaims territory ownership to other males. It sounds like “coo-oo, coo, coo, coo.”

Bowing Display

Both genders give pronounced head-bobbing bows during courtship or as threat displays. Deep bows with spread wings signal submission.

Nest Coo

Doves give a soft, rolling “nest coo” to signal contentment while sitting on eggs. It encourages the mate to take a turn at incubation.

Flight Whistles

Wings make loud whistles during take-off and landings. In flight, the wings whistle softly during the upstroke. These help scattered birds reunite.

Alarm Calls

When startled, doves give a short “kuk” call prior to fleeing. A sharp “pee-ah” call signals imminent danger to others.

Wing Clap

In aggressive displays, male doves may perform a wing-clapping threat display where they rapidly beat their wings together over the back.

Sky Dance

An elaborate aerial courtship dance where the male flies up steeply, claps wings, then drifts down while cooing to attract the female’s attention.

So in summary, Mourning Doves have a wide vocabulary of vocalizations and visual displays that play important roles in courtship, territoriality, alarms, contentment, and flock cohesion. Their communicative abilities help ensure effective social functioning and reproduction.

Common Diseases and Predators

Although Mourning Doves are prolific breeders, their populations in the wild are influenced by a number of threats including:

Trichomoniasis

This disease is caused by a protozoan parasite that is ingested in contaminated food or water sources. It causes lesions in the mouth, throat, and digestive tract and can be fatal.

Salmonellosis

A bacterial disease that causes diarrhea, lethargy, unkempt feathers, and can lead to death within days. It spreads at crowded feeding sites.

Parasites and Mites

Mites, lice, fleas, and intestinal worms can weaken birds and negatively impact their health over time. Mites often concentrate around the eyes.

Aerial Predators

Sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper’s hawks, and falcons take doves in mid-flight. Nestlings may be snatched by raptors as well. Crows, jays, and ravens may raid eggs.

Ground Predators

Foxes, coyotes, raccoons, domestic cats, and snakes prey on young and eggs. Adults may be caught while feeding or roosting on the ground.

To reduce losses to disease and predators, conservation measures such as providing clean water sources, limiting crowding at feeders, and protecting and restoring habitat can help Mourning Dove populations thrive.

Significance to Humans and Ecosystems

Mourning Doves play important roles ecologically, economically, and culturally:

As prolific seed eaters, the doves help disperse plant seeds and influence plant propagation through their droppings.
They serve as abundant prey for raptors, foxes, and other predators, supplying an important food source.
Mourning Doves are an important game bird. More doves are harvested than all other game bird species combined.
Their cooing adds a sense of tranquility and their flocks animate fields and woods. People enjoy watching them at feeders.
Their treaty-protected migrations between U.S. and Canada highlight international cooperation for conservation.
Mourning Doves symbolize peace, love, and the Holy Spirit in Judeo-Christian cultures. Their imagery is used in wedding ceremonies and artwork as symbols of promise and new beginnings.
Banding studies of banded Mourning Doves provide information on lifespan, mortality causes, and migration patterns that inform management plans.

So in many ways, the gentle Mourning Dove contributes a great deal environmentally, economically, and socially throughout its vast North American range. Protecting habitat and sustaining populations are important for maintaining their benefits.

Conservation Status and Threats

Currently, Mourning Dove populations remain healthy across most of their range. They are protected in the U.S. by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. However, habitat loss and environmental toxins present increasing challenges.

Population Trends

The Mourning Dove has an extremely large range of 2.4 million square miles. Current global population estimates are approximately 350 million individuals. Partners in Flight estimates a breeding population of 150 million in North America, with stable numbers. They are common to abundant in most regions.

Major Threats

Habitat loss – Conversion of farmland and succession of abandoned fields into dense woods has reduced nesting habitat in some regions.
Pesticides – As granivores, doves are susceptible to seeds treated with agricultural pesticides and chemicals. The toxins accumulate in body fat and can reduce egg production and increase mortality.
Collisions – Glass windows, communication towers, and vehicles can cause injury and death, particularly of migrating flocks.
Climate change – Increased drought may dry up crucial water sources in arid western regions. More intense storms can destroy nests.

Conservation Actions

Protecting remaining tracts of open woodlands and disturbed habitat from development.
Reducing use of neonicotinoid pesticides shown to be harmful.
Installing collision deterrents on windows, towers, and other infrastructure.
Providing clean artificial water sources in arid climates.
Supporting hunting limits and international treaties.

With continued conservation action, the beloved Mourning Dove stands a good chance of remaining abundant across its range for the foreseeable future. The birds provide an important link to nature for many throughout their travels.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mourning Doves

Here are answers to some common questions about these widespread and iconic birds:

Q: Why are they called Mourning Doves?

A: The melancholy, mournful quality of their cooing evokes a feeling of grief or mourning, leading to their sorrowful name.

Q: How far can Mourning Doves migrate?

A: They may migrate up to 1,000 miles between their breeding and wintering grounds, though many are permanent residents year-round.

Q: How fast can Mourning Doves fly?

A: In level flight Mourning Doves average 30-55 mph. They can reach top speeds of up to 60 mph when evading predators.

Q: How long do Mourning Doves live?

A: Average lifespan is 1-5 years in the wild. The longevity record is 13 years for a banded dove. They raise many broods each year which compensates for short lives.

Q: When do Mourning Doves nest?

A: Nesting season lasts from March to September, with peaks from late spring through mid-summer. Doves raise up to 6 broods per season in southern parts of their range.

Q: What time of day are Mourning Doves most active?

A: Early morning and late afternoon are activity peaks. Mourning Doves forage, nest-build, sun bathe, court, and engage in other behaviors most actively during these periods.

Q: How can I attract Mourning Doves to my yard?

A: Provide a good source of grains and seeds such as millet, corn, safflower, sunflower chips, and nyjer. Also supply a bird bath, nesting shrubs, and open ground for foraging.

Q: Are Mourning Doves protected from hunting?

A: Mourning Doves are a legal game bird in most states with regulated seasons and bag limits. Hunting is an important management tool to keep populations stable.

Summary

In summary, the graceful Mourning Dove is a beloved backyard visitor across North America, readily identified by its tapered silhouette, mournful cooing, and swift darting flight. These predominantly seed-eating, ground foraging birds thrive in open habitats from suburban backyards to countryside fields. Their high reproductive rate ensures healthy populations, though loss of habitat and environmental toxins pose increasing threats. Mourning Doves provide ecological benefits as prey and seed dispersers, recreational hunting opportunities, and symbolic cultural value. Conserving sufficient habitat and food sources will help ensure future generations can continue to enjoy the soothing presence of these cooing birds. Their far-reaching migrations and resilience make them an important link connecting ecosystems and people across the Americas.