Birds:
Links:
http://www.e-nature.org
http://www.enature.com
http://www.landbirds.com
http://birds.fws.gov
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Birds:
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Common Name: Mourning Dove | ||||
| Species: Zenaida Macroura | |||||
| Type: songbird | |||||
| Description: The Mourning Dove is approximately 12 inches long. This bird has a slim, gray-brown body with a small head and a long and a pointed tail. The outer tail feathers have white tips with a black marking midway, so that the tail is edged with a black and white stripe. | Habitat: This dove can be found across the United States and southern Canada, is most common throughout the Great Plains in the Midwest. Those surviving fall migration tend to cover-winter in the same area each year and remain longest in the best habitat. Wintering doves prefer river and creek bottoms near agricultural fields that produced corn or grain the previous summer. | ||||
| Food: A Dove’s diet consists almost entirely of seeds from cultivated fields and weeds along fencerows. Doves generally do not feed in areas containing heavy, densely matted vegetation. Bare ground on which seeds are available is preferred. | Enemies: They are very abundunt and in many states the mourning dove is a game bird, pursued by those who find pleasure in shooting them. | ||||
| Range & migration: Spring migration begins about February, depending on cold weather and snow. Not all doves are migratory, and birds resident to a local area are the first to breed in the spring. | Reproduction: Doves reproduce at high rates, but are short-lived and generally survive less than one year. They are monogamous birds and the eggs are incubated by both parents for 12-15 days. The young leave the nest after about 16 days and are fed by both parents as well. They have 2-5 broods a year. | ||||
| More information: The most abundant dove in the United States, the Mourning Dove is also the most widely hunted and harvested game bird. The name comes from the familiar, although easily overlooked song, a low-toned moaning cooah, coo, coo, coo. | Links: http://www.e-nature.org |
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