Powerful Wingbeats

	A Good Match Mourning Doves often match their open-country surroundings. They're delicate brown to buffy-tan overall, with blocks of spots on the wings and black-bordered white tips to the tail feathers. Mourning Doves fly fast (up to 55 MPH) on powerful wingbeats, sometimes making sudden accents, descents and dodges. The Mourning Dove is also called the 'Turtle Dove' or 'Rain Dove'. They eat mostly seeds. Its plaintive woo-OO-oo-oo-oo call gives the bird its name. (More Info can be found in the 'Comment Section'.) GOOD NEWS: George's eye pressure is down. To all in Isaac's path my thoughts and prayers are with you... © Lorraine A. Cook Canon Powershot S3...

•During the breeding season, you might see three Mourning Doves flying in tight formation, one after another. This is a form of social display. Typically the bird in the lead is the male of a mated pair. The second bird is an unmated male chasing his rival from the area where he hopes to nest. The third is the female of the mated pair, which seems to go along for the ride.

•Mourning Doves tend to feed busily on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in an enlargement of the esophagus called the crop. Once they’ve filled it (the record is 17,200 bluegrass seeds in a single crop!), they can fly to a safe perch to digest the meal.

•Mourning Doves eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day, or 71 calories on average.

•Perhaps one reason why Mourning Doves survive in the desert: they can drink brackish spring water (up to almost half the salinity of sea water) without becoming dehydrated the way humans would.

•The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million, but the Mourning Dove remains one of our most abundant birds with a U.S. population estimated at 350 million.

•The oldest known Mourning Dove was 31 years 4 months old.
Habitat

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8/30/2012 8:55:54 AM

Fascinating info Lorraine – thanks for sharing! We always have a lot of Doves at our home; particularly at the feeder!

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8/30/2012 9:30:07 AM

Great image and info, Lorraine!

Dominick

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8/30/2012 11:25:08 AM

A wonderful capture Lorraine, and it is great news about George! Thanks for all the dove info to, it is very interesting!

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8/31/2012 1:26:47 PM

Wonderful capture!

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8/31/2012 1:28:25 PM

Wonderful capture!

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8/31/2012 1:28:26 PM

one of my favorite birds I can copy their call and they will answer back or do a fly by. we had a baby in our yard this year. I never saw the mother but he or she ended up hanging out with some house finches for a while. I see him or her every couple days. I was shooting flowers in my backyard so my first pictures of him or her were with a 180 macro.

have a great day

terry korpela

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8/31/2012 7:07:51 PM

beautiful capture

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9/1/2012 5:16:55 AM