![]() To attract a mate, the male coos and flies in an oval pattern, flapping his wings noisily before approaching her on the ground, bowing, and puffing up his chest. The sound is associated with courtship and used to warn other birds of danger. These doves are also known for the loud whistling of air rushing through their wing feathers during take-off and landing. After mating, males sing to warn off rivals. The mourning dove’s primary song-a distinctive woeful call known as a “perch coo”-is a two-syllable coo followed by two or three louder coos: “ Coo-woo, WOO, WOO, WOO.” Males call to attract a mate while females reply so quietly they might not be audible. They are commonly found in agricultural and suburban areas and like to perch on telephone wires. These birds value high visibility and avoid thick forests. Mourning doves likely thrived after European settlers arrived in North America and began to clear the land. While some southern regions have year-round resident populations, these migratory birds usually head south for the winter. HabitatĪll five subspecies of mourning doves are found across North America. Their soft bills cannot crack open seeds so they swallow them whole with sand or gravel to help with digestion. They mainly eat seeds as well as grasses, weeds, and insects. While they prefer to stay close to home, they can travel up to 20 miles for food. Mourning doves feed from dawn to dusk, eating up to 20 percent of their bodyweight each day. ![]() Males and females cannot be easily distinguished by their plumage, but juveniles are darker with white markings at the tips of their feathers, resembling scales. It has a black dot below and behind its eyes and bold white tips on all but its central tail feathers. This bird’s head and neck plumage is a muted pinkish-brown while its wings are grayish-brown with dark spots. Mourning doves are medium-size birds with slim bodies, thin necks, and long, tapered tails that enable them to fly up to 55 miles per hour. Named for their distinctive, sorrowful song, these co-parenting birds lay up to six broods each year because of their fledglings’ high mortality rates. One of North America’s most common and widespread doves, mourning doves are found from southern Canada to central Mexico. Current Population Trend: Increasing What is a mourning dove?
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