The female warms the eggs from dusk to dawn the male incubates during the day.
Parents take turns incubating two white eggs for 14 days. In the East and Midwest, mourning doves usually raise at least three broods per year. In some southern states, they breed all year long. Pairs bond for the breeding season, which runs from March through September. The simple answer is to nest early and often. Hence my surprise at finding a nest on the ground in North Carolina.įurthermore, how can a bird that lays only two eggs per nest maintain a healthy population? In western deserts and prairies, where trees are often absent, doves are content to nest directly on the ground. Seen from below, blue sky often peeks through the nesting materials. Here in the east, they build a flimsy platform of twigs in both evergreen and deciduous trees along forest edges, in orchards and backyards.
#MOURNING DOVES NESTING HABITS CRACKED#
They eat myriad types of seeds found everywhere - from farms, small towns and parks to vacant city lots, and especially at backyard feeders stocked with white millet, cracked corn and sunflower seeds. They nest from southern Mexico to Alaska. Key to their success is that they are generalists in every sense of the word.
They occur across Canada, in all lower 48 states and Alaska. Mourning doves are one of the most abundant birds in North America. Nothing gets children more excited than close encounters with wildlife, so Garek wanted to learn all about these birds. An adult sat motionless, incubating the eggs. When I asked where they found it, she said Garek almost stepped on it while running down a hill.Ī few minutes later they showed me the nest, which was located on a hillside about 20 feet from a sidewalk. Linda pulled out her phone and showed me a photo of two white eggs nestled in a scrape on the ground. Though mourning doves commonly nest on the ground out west, I had never seen a dove nest on the ground. “But it was on the ground,” Linda answered. “Sounds like a mourning dove,” I replied. “We’ve got a nest with two white eggs to identify,” she said. Linda and our grandson, Garek, burst into the apartment a few weeks ago excitedly out of breath.
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