Mourning Dove

The Mourning Dove is a year-round resident of Aldea and all of New Mexico. They are found throughout the US and move into Canada for the summer. I had not seen them in the backyard until recently. They are really skittish, but I was able to get one photographed on the sidewalk as it stuck around for just a few minutes.

Mourning Doves form strong pairs and are monogamous. Males are slightly larger. They lay two white eggs in a flimsy nest composed of pine needles, twigs and grass stems usually in a low bush or tree. Sadly, I have seen Mourning Doves try to build nests on top of sconce-type lighting on houses in Aldea but they fall apart readily and are unsuccessful. 

The wings make an unusual whistling sound upon take-off and landing, a form of sonation. Sonation is sound generated by means other than the throat—in this case, the wings. Hummingbirds also use their wings to make a sound, also sonation. 

Mourning Dove's diet consists mostly of seeds from cultivated or wild plants. They forage mostly entirely on the ground and sometimes in trees, but they avoid tall vegetation. They prefer cracked corn, Sunflower seeds, nuts and Thistle seed. Mourning Doves drink by suction, without the need to lift and tilt their heads. The oldest documented wild Mourning Dove was 19.3 years old. I find that amazing since most birds have a much, much shorter lifespan.

A group of doves is known by many collective nouns: a “bevy”, “core”, “dole”, “dule”, and “flight” of doves. 

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