NESTING MOURNING DOVES

      At least a few pairs of mourning doves nest in our suburban neighborhood in New Holland, Pennsylvania.  I see them here from early February, when their nesting season begins until mid to late September, when it ends.  These beautiful, interesting birds are well-adapted to living among peoples' activities in suburbs and farmland, human-made habitats that have increased dove numbers dramatically.

     Mourning doves, like many life forms, notice the increased amount of daylight each succeeding day in January, which stirs their hormones.  The doves respond with repetitive cooing during warm afternoons in early February, which, along with northern cardinals, are the first bird songs I hear in our suburban neighborhood.  That cooing, and the male doves' courtship flights of several deep wing beats alternating with long, circular glides over their hoped-for nesting territories, strengthens each pair's bond. 

     During February, some pairs of local doves build flimsy cradles of twigs and dried grass on the needled boughs of sheltering coniferous trees, while a few other pairs make nurseries in abandoned birds' nests or on human-made structures, such as behind shutters or on awning supports, for example.  Each female lays two white eggs in her first cradle of the year by early March, and both partners of each pair of doves take turns incubating those eggs for two weeks.  Unfortunately, strong winds blow some doves' flimsy nurseries out of the trees and other places where the doves placed them, destroying eggs or young.

     Both parents of each pair of mourning doves feed "pigeon milk" to their young.  That food is sloughed-off cells from each parent's throat and crop that has the consistency of cottage cheese.  And that food is loaded with protein and fat that promotes rapid growth.  

     Each pair of young are fed in their cradles for two weeks, then leave their nests, but are still fed by their parents for a few days more.  Meanwhile, each mother dove lays two eggs in another nest nearby, for a second brood of the year.  And so it goes from early March to early September; each pair producing a brood a month, for a potential total of 12 young in six broods, barring wind, or predation from crows, hawks and other kinds of predators.  

     Cooper's hawks are a major predator on adult mourning doves.  Some pairs of Coops even nest in tall trees in suburban neighborhoods, including ours, to be near one of their food sources.  House cats probably catch some ground-feeding adult and recently fledged young.  And doves are a game species in autumn.

     Mourning doves are lovely, interesting and often obvious birds on suburban lawns from at least February into September.  They help make lawns lively with their activities, particularly if patronizing bird feeders and bird baths.  And their raising young on lawns is especially engaging to many people.            

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