Geographic range and origin: The Mourning Dove is found throughout most of North America. They often live year-round in the Central United States. Birds that live in the southern parts Canada often migrate south for the winter.
Map showing the range of the Mourning Dove, including breeding and non breeding areas.
Habitat: The Mourning Dove typically lives in open areas, woodland edges, and scattered trees. During the winter months, it will tend to roost in woodland areas. Feeds from the ground in grasslands, agricultural fields, and roadsides.
Description: Mourning Dove’s size and color vary across its range, but they are usually gray to brown above and a somewhat lighter below, with darker wings and tail. The wings have a few black spots, and the tail feathers have black-bordered white tips. These birds are very fast and direct flyers.
Picture showing the grayish brown coloration with the few black spots on the wings. (Picture by Ryan Schain)
Picture showing a Mourning Dove in flight with it's white tipped tail feathers (Photo by Nancy Christensen)
Reproduction: Mourning doves are monogamous, some pairs stay together through the winter. Males will scare other males away from their display perch but do not establish a territory until after they mate. If a pair is formed, the male and female remain together for a few days before starting to build a nest. After finding a mate, males begin searching for a nest site. Nest construction takes over ten hours and covers a span of three to four days. Female mourning doves generally lay two white and small eggs in a nest. They will typically breed multiple times in a breeding season depending on the food availability.
Picture showing a juvenile dove, which is represented by its white marking on its face and small white tips on the tail (Photo by Joseph Boros)
Picture showing a flock of doves perched on a telephone line (Photo by Lewis Ultery)
Conservation status: The mourning dove is very common across most of North America, which is an extremely large range. Their population is estimated to be around 120 million. Populations have declined by about 15% between 1966 and 2015 but their population remains high because these birds have up to six broods per year. These birds are known to be one of North America’s most common game birds. One problem because of this is lead poisoning. These birds forage on the ground, and in heavily hunted areas they may eat some of the fallen lead shot. Studies have found this problem is more common around fields that are planted to attract the doves for hunting purposes; about 1 in 20 doves wind up eating lead.
Ecological importance: The mourning dove’s main source of food is grain and seed, therefore Mourning doves consume large quantities of seed and grain. This has a large impact on the plant communities in the Mourning Dove’s geographic range. They can act as seed distributers for certain species of plants that they feed on. They can also be seen as a pest by farmers because of the large amount of seeds a population can consume.
Calls and Sounds:
Here is a video showing the calls of a Mourning Dove. It’s a soft coo-oo followed by two or three louder coos.
References:
Mourning Dove Life History, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (n.d.). Retrieved April 02, 2018, from https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/lifehistory
Nature's Notebook. (n.d.). Retrieved April 02, 2018, from https://www.usanpn.org/nn/Zenaida_macroura
Mourning Dove - Zenaida macroura - Details. (n.d.). Retrieved April 02, 2018, from http://eol.org/pages/1050134/details