The Mourning Dove

During the Great Backyard Bird Count, I didn’t get too much farther than my own yard. The strongest showing therein was the American Goldfinch, a huge flock that I’ve been feeding now for many weeks. Next in number came the Pine Siskin, a smaller flock also enjoying a daily bounty of black-oil sunflower seeds. (See my earlier reports on these two species.) In fact, my list of birds for the annual backyard count included only one bird not already profiled by me in during these winter months—the Mourning Dove.

Among the much smaller finches and sparrows typically at my feeder, the Mourning Dove looks like a big, lumbering chicken. Well, not at all like a chicken, but big and plump, with a long pointed tail. Mourning Doves get their name from the sound of their song, a soft cooing sound (that some people confuse with the call of an owl), said to sound mournful or sad. (The photo provided here courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service clearly shows the dove's light blue eye-ring.)

These gentle, shy birds roost in small flocks within in my locust tree, waiting their turn at the sunflower seeds. Sometimes gray squirrels will raid the area, scaring off all the smaller birds, allowing the doves to flutter in one by one, finally to make a claim.

Mourning Doves are as soft in color as disposition, being light gray with buff-colored breasts, though both males and females possess a wash of more colorful tones (pink and/or green). What make these birds special to me are their whistling wings when taking flight. Imagine: a bird that makes music while it flies!

Until next time . . . happy birding!

Georgia Anne