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The Mourning Dove
The Mourning Dove (Zenaidura macroura) is the most widespread wild
dove in the west. It resembles, except in size, the now extinct passenger
pigeon, of which it is a close relative. Owing to its wide distribution and
comparative abundance, it is on that small list of birds which are known by
almost everyone.
Mourning doves are found in summer from southern Canada, south through all
of the United States and Mexico. In winter, most of them leave the colder
places to congregate from northern California, Arizona, and Colorado south.
The male is 12 inches, and the female 11 inches in length. The bill is black.
The eye, of a glossy blackness, is surrounded with a pale, greenish blue
skin. The crown, upper parts of neck, and the wing coverts are ashy brown;
forehead, sides of neck, and breast are a pale red-brown. Vivid tints of
green, gold, and crimson shine on the neck. Legs and feet are coral red.
The large pointed tail is bordered with large white spots, which are
conspicuous in flight.
Although gregarious, doves appear in pairs during the breeding season. The
nest is a makeshift affair of small twigs and sticks, loosely put together,
and are usually placed in trees, but sometimes in bushes. In the deserts of
Arizona, nests have been found on the bare ground, sheltered only by the
uncertain foliage of a little greasewood bush. Usually two white eggs are
laid in a clutch, and two or three broods are raised each season. As many
as five broods have been raised by a pair of doves in one year.
Mourning doves feed mostly on the ground, and destroy enormous quantities
of weed seeds. The young birds look very much like young tame pigeons, and
are first fed with food which their parents have already digested for them.
(This food is sometimes called pigeon milk.) Later they are fed worms,
insects, and seeds.
Roger Tory Peterson, in his Audubon Leaflet (#2a-AJC) has this to say:
"Somehow I think of mourning doves much the way I do about passenger
pigeons, which are now gone. They were much like mourning doves, but larger,
and more brightly colored. Years ago passenger pigeons gathered in great
flocks, sometimes millions of them together. They even nested in great
numbers. Because of this they were very easily killed. There were no laws
to protect them then. Now there is not a single passenger pigeon left in
the world. ... In some states the mourning dove is shot as a game bird at
certain seasons. This seems too bad, for they are such good birds to have
on a farm. Good laws are needed to give greater protection to these useful
birds."
According to Dr. J. H. Paul, "It is a question for the farmers to settle,
whether or not they will permit the killing of birds that annually destroy
tons of the seeds of pigeon grass, ragweed, smartweed, bindweed, and many
other noxious plants. If three doves at one meal destroy 23,000 weed seeds
and thus prevent the growth of the same number of prospective weeds, how
much good will all the doves on a farm, or in a state, or in the country
at large accomplish?
"The dove has been the symbol of peace in all languages. Knowledge of dove
ways has been a source of inspiration to nearly all of the gifted poets, as
the most delicate medium for the refined expression of love and sorrow.
The dove imagery used by Biblical writers has been the model for all
subsequent time."
The call, mournful and flute-like, consists of four long coos, the second
syllable of the first note being high, and the first and last notes low
in pitch.
Mourning doves arrive in Salt Lake County about the last of April or the
first of May.
-- by Marie L. Atkinson
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