Mourning Doves are the continent's most popular game bird: hunters may shoot more than 20 million each year. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 150 million and rates the species 6 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern. Mourning Doves are common across the continent and generally have prospered as people settled the landscape, however populations declined by an estimated 0.4% per year from 1966 to 2019 for a cumulative decline of about 20%, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Eventually, the pair will progress to grasping beaks and bobbing their heads up and down in unison. Members of a pair preen each other with gentle nibbles around the neck as a pair-bonding ritual. Males have favorite “cooing perches” they defend from other males. They peck or push aside ground litter, but don’t scratch at the ground. Mourning Doves feed on the ground and in the open. Helpless, eyes closed, sparsely covered in cream-colored down, unable to hold up head, dependent on adults for warmth. Mourning Doves sometimes reuse their own or other species’ nests.

Over 2 to 4 days, the male carries twigs to the female, passing them to her while standing on her back the female weaves them into a nest about 8 inches across. Nest DescriptionĪ flimsy assembly of pine needles, twigs, and grass stems, unlined and with little insulation for the young. Unbothered by nesting around humans, Mourning Doves may even nest on gutters, eaves, or abandoned equipment. Also quite commonly nests on the ground, particularly in the West. Typically nests amid dense foliage on the branch of an evergreen, orchard tree, mesquite, cottonwood, or vine. Mourning Doves eat roughly 12 to 20 percent of their body weight per day, or 71 calories on average. Seeds make up 99 percent of a Mourning Dove’s diet, including cultivated grains and even peanuts, as well as wild grasses, weeds, herbs, and occasionally berries. Feeds on ground in grasslands, agricultural fields, backyards, and roadsides. Primarily a bird of open country, scattered trees, and woodland edges, but large numbers roost in woodlots during winter.

Mourning doves nesting habits