A Calming Backyard Call

The mourning dove holds a special place in a birder’s heart, and ears.

ourning doves are found throughout much of North

America, but there is nothing common about these graceful birds. Many passionate backyard birders find the soft, distinctive cooing of this dove to be calming and utterly peaceful.

“The birds vocalize quite a lot and that’s where they get their name, because of their mournful call,” says John Rowden, who is the senior director of bird-friendly communities at the National

Audubon Society.

Both male and female mourning doves are known for their brown and gray coloring, black spots, small heads and slender tails.

“They have that really amazing mix of muted tones, with beautiful defined black spots on their wings.

You can sort of see an iridescence,”

John says.

Mourning doves are sometimes confused with Eurasian collared doves or white-winged doves. If a thick black band is present on the collar, it’s a collared dove. You can tell white-winged doves apart by their namesake white wing stripe.

Mourning doves are commonly found in southern Canada, the contiguous United States and northern Mexico. You can spot them nearly anywhere—in cities, backyards and even the middle of the Mojave Desert.

They are mainly attracted to open spaces, only avoiding areas with deep forests. “Wherever you are, you might have a mourning dove in your area,” John says. He adds that very few species are so common both geographically and seasonally. It’s estimated that there are more than 100 million mourning doves, but they are commonly hunted as a game bird and are easy prey for outdoor cats, which affects their population.

These doves evolved specifically for ground foraging, eating up to 20% of their body weight in seeds daily.

They use their crop, which is an outgrowth of their esophagus, to stash food before heading to a secluded perch for digestion.

Mourning doves often have a noticeably round breast, since it expands during feeding. Scientists once found a record-holding bird with 17,200 bluegrass seeds stuffed away in its crop.

To encourage the gorgeous doves to visit your yard, install an open platform feeder or scatter seeds across the ground. Wild grasses, grains and ragweed are a few of their favorite foods, though they will eat larger seeds, including sunflower seeds, and shelled peanuts in a pinch.