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Sometimes called "turtle dove" the common
name of "mourning dove" reflects this bird's melancholy
song. Their soft cooing can be heard through forests and shrublands
at great distances, and it is a song familiar to most anyone
who spends time in the forest.
Like all members of the pigeon family, mourning doves feed
"milk" to their young. This, of course, isn't true
milk, since birds are not mammals and possess no mammary glands.
Instead, it is a nutritious liquid produced by glands in the
bird's crop. The chicks insert their bills down the parent bird's
throat to eat the thick liquid.
Mourning doves are popular game birds in some states but protected
in others. In fact, more mourning doves are shot by hunters in
the U.S. than any other game bird.
I.D: Sexes are similar with small head and long, white-trimmed,
tapered tail. Plumage is olive-brown. Body is sleek, with a dark,
shiny patch below the ear, dull red legs, dark bill and pale-rosy
underparts. Size is 11-13 inches. Its range is the continental
U.S., southern Canada, and Mexico.
Some doves are migratory, while others remain in the south
during the entire year. They are found in fields, woodlands and
residential areas. The Mourning Dove will visit feeders, and
nests in the fork of trees or shrubs, although sometimes on the
ground. The female builds a fragile, shallow nest from twigs
supplied by the male, eggs incubated by the pair for 14 days.
Other doves found in the U.S. are the white-winged dove and the
ground dove. They are not as common, nor as extensively hunted
as the mourning dove. |
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