Mourning dove

The title of Idaho’s most sad-sounding cry might have to be the appropriately named mourning dove (Zenaida macroura). The oowoo-woo-woo-woo call is quite distinctive and sets them apart from most (if not all) other related birds.

Mourning doves are members of the columbidae family, which in addition to other species of doves also includes pigeons and, most interestingly, the dodo bird (yes, the dodo is technically a large flightless pigeon!). They are typically around 12 inches, more or less, from beak to tail, and have a wingspan of around 17 inches. The mourning dove is smaller and somewhat more slender than its infamous cousin, the rock pigeon, weighing between 3 and 6 ounces. Unusual for birds, males are typically slightly larger than females.

Though the specifics of its coloration can vary depending on where within its range an individual bird is living, the mourning dove is usually grayish brown or even grayish blue in color, with large dark eyes, red-colored legs and feet and a black beak. Black spots occur on the wings and just behind the eyes. These birds are sexually dimorphic, meaning males can be differentiated from females. The colors on a male mourning dove are just a little bit brighter than their female counterparts, and they have a blue-tinted crown and rosey-colored chest. Their long, pointed tail is another feature that can be used to tell the mourning dove apart from similar species.

These birds are one of the most common and widespread species of columbid on the North American continent. They’ve been seen as far north as Alaska and northern Canada and have even been occasionally spotted across the ocean in Great Britain. Nevertheless, they are most frequently at home in the open forests, farmlands and urban areas of the United States, southern Canada and Central America.

If you choose to look for these birds, you’re likely to find them perched on telephone wires, or perhaps foraging for seeds (which make up 95% of their diet) and grain like barley, corn, millet, oats and rye in farm fields, or searching for fruit or insects on patches of bare ground in urban settings. These doves are incredibly adaptable!

While it is doubtful that these birds are capable of true mourning, a mated pair do form a strong bond. They will periodically clean each other’s feathers, clasp beaks and, as an additional part of their bonding ritual, they will often mirror their partner’s head bobbing movements. When the time comes, they spend the next 10 hours split across three or four days constructing a strong nest that will contain a pair of small white eggs. The parents alternate sitting on the nest until the chicks hatch. Like other members of their family, mourning doves feed their newly-hatched offspring with a special secretion called crop milk.

Childhood is brief for mourning doves, as the chicks are out of the nest in half a month and remain with their parents until they master the art of flight and food foraging at the end of the month. If they survive, they will be having chicks of their own in just 85 days!

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Christian can be reached at animaladventures1314@gmail.com