Mourning Dove | Cooing and Fun Facts

As the earth defrosts from winter's chill, the sound of the morning dove's coo heralds Their call is sometimes mistaken for an owl's hooting due to its hollow-like resonance. They are easy to find and observe as they tend to hang out in the same habitats as humans. They are often the entry point into the world of bird watching, as all one has to do is look to their backyard feeder where doves abound. A small head, thin beak, and round body mark the signature shape of doves. The morning dove wears brown feathers with black spots on the wings and has a long tapered tail. They have a light turquoise eye ring, black markings on the cheek, and iridescent feathers on the sides of the neck. Males and females are quite close in appearance. The best way to distinguish them is by the color of the breast feathers. The male has a more pinkish hue, whereas the female is more tan. The male has a darker gray crown, and the iridescent neck patch is more pronounced. He is also slightly larger than the female. The morning dove is widely found in parts of Canada, the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. It shares much of this range with its cousin, the Eurasian collared dove. Eurasian collars are larger in size, light gray instead of brown, and have a distinct black ring around the back of the neck. Their tails are rounded like a fan, unlike the morning dove's pointed tail. They can be found widely across the northern hemisphere in North America, Europe, and Asia. And lastly, there is the eared dove, found in South America. It looks nearly identical to the morning dove. The main differences are heavier black markings over its ears and a shorter tail. The morning dove is also known as the rain dove. It resides in the family Columbidae, and its scientific name is Zonida macrura. Within this are five subspecies, each with small variations in the lengths of the beak, wings, legs, or feet. There are also differences in feather color. Some are darker brown, whereas others are more muted and lighter. In 1838, French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte named the genus in honor of his wife, Zonida. The word macrura comes from Greek and means long and tailed. Now, we gotta talk about cooing and how it happens. What is going on in that big, puffed up throat? The short answer is this. The bird inhales, and on the exhale, a portion of the upper esophagus inflates, producing the coo. But it's much more complicated than that. You see, songbirds are able to produce elaborate vocalizations due to their complex syrinx. Doves, however, have fewer muscles in this area and therefore can't produce complex vocal frequency. If you think about it, dove coos are pure, simple tones and quite rudimentary. Are you still with me? There's more. They do produce harmonic overtones, but they do not emit them. In scientific studies, data shows that when sound is measured inside the bird, there are many harmonics, but they get filtered out and the low frequencies get amplified instead. The anatomy responsible for removing these higher harmonics are the combined workings of the trachea, constriction of the glottis, and the inflated esophagus. The origin of the coo comes from the vibrating syringeal valve, just like in a songbird. The difference is that it has all these other things going on that remove higher harmonics of the sound, leaving you with a very basic, simple product, the coo. So now that we understand the biology, what is the purpose of their calls? It must be important, as nature spent time creating hardware for cooing. The most common sound you will hear is the advertising coo, sometimes called the perch coo. This is a telltale rise and fall coo with three shorter notes after it. The male makes this call when he is perched in a conspicuous location with the hopes of attracting a female. The next most common sound you hear is what is known as the nest coo and consists of three notes going from low to high to low again. Males make this sound to attract the female to a potential nest site. It is also used by both male and female when it's time for a shift change of incubation duties. Another sound you hear is a squeaky, sloppy whistle when doves are flushed and take to the air. This is known as the wing whistle and as the name suggests, it doesn't come from their vocal cords but from air vibrating the ends of their wing feathers as they take off. Wing whistles are tools of communication and alert other birds to potential danger. There are normal takeoffs and panic takeoffs, each with corresponding whistles. Researchers tested this theory and found that when they played panicked wing whistles to doves and other birds at a feeder, all the birds took off. When they played the normal takeoff sounds, none of the birds paid much attention. Clearly the subtle variations in sound are perceptible to birds. What isn't yet known is if the panicked wing whistles are produced on purpose or involuntarily. Morning doves don't have an oil gland at the base of their tail. Instead, they have powdered down feathers. These specialized feathers disintegrate at the tips leaving a fine dusty powder that is then distributed during preening. It helps keep their feathers healthy and waterproofed. There's a good reason why it's so easy to find morning doves hanging out at the backyard feeder. They absolutely love seeds and consume them as 99% of their diet. They are also ground feeders and are content to pick up seed that they previously spilled out. They do not scratch the dirt for food but need it to be plainly visible. They eat seeds whole, storing them in their crop for later digestion. As they amble along the ground, they pick up small stones and bits of gravel. Grit works with a muscular gizzard to break down the hard seeds so that the nutrition can be extracted and utilized. Their love of seeds is beneficial to humans too. A flock of doves poking around in a field or near a roadside can consume the seeds of plants that we consider to be weeds and spreaders of seasonal pollens. Morning doves, and all doves and pigeons for that matter, have the unique ability to use their beaks like a straw. Instead of scooping up water and tilting their heads back to let the water roll down their throats, they are able to siphon water through their beaks. No need for head tipping or negotiating with gravity. They just insert beak into water and slurp away. Morning doves are fast flyers, clocking a top speed of about 50 miles per hour. That big plump look that they have is due to their large pectoral muscles. This is advantageous as they are a favorite meal of hawks, falcons, crows, raccoons, house cats, dogs, and many others. Morning doves are the most widely hunted game bird in North America, with hunters bagging 15 to 20 million doves annually. In addition, some doves succumb to lead poisoning in areas where there is a lot of hunting. The lead shot littering the ground looks all too similar to the gravel they need to ingest. Despite their rigorous hunting and lead poisoning, dove populations remain stable due to them being prolific breeders. The life expectancy of an adult morning dove is one to two years in the wild. All I can say is, they go through a lot. Their lives are difficult and precarious. Morning doves are excellent parents. The male brings twigs, pine needles, and grasses to the female, and she builds the nest, though a rather flimsy and airy one. Their preferred location is the dense foliage of trees or shrubs, a hanging planter on the front porch, or for those who live in a desert climate, the middle of a cactus. Both male and female share equally in incubating the eggs and taking care of the young. They may have anywhere from one to six broods per year, with two eggs per clutch. The pair reaffirm their bond by mutual preening, also known as allopreening. Most pairs are seasonally monogamous, whereas others repair with the same mate the following season. Both parents feed their chicks crop milk for the first three to five days of life. Crop milk is secreted by the cells in the wall of the crop and is rich in fats and protein. Afterward, softer foods like regurgitated seeds are introduced. The young doves grow quickly, fledging at about two weeks of age. The juveniles are darker brown overall, and their wing feathers are trimmed in white. They lack the blue eye ring seen in adults. Seeing morning doves and hearing their beautiful cooing always brings a smile to my face. I appreciate their resilience and how devoted they are to their young. Their accessibility allows us to easily connect to the natural world, especially if we live closer to concrete and steel than a meadow or woods. Do you have an appreciation for the morning dove as well? Let me know in the comments section below. Thank you for watching. That's all for this time. I'll see you again soon.