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Baby Mourning Doves - International Forum Gallery - Posted: 4th Jun, 2017 - 4:18pm
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Baby Mourning Doves
Baby Mourning Doves
Below is a picture I took of some Baby Mourning Doves that are occupying part of our home. If you want to know the history of how this happened read this:
QUOTE (Wikipedia)Courtship begins with a noisy flight by the male, followed by a graceful, circular glide with outstretched wings and head down. After landing, the male will approach the female with a puffed-out breast, bobbing head, and loud calls. Mated pairs will often preen each other's feathers The male then leads the female to potential nest sites, and the female will choose one. The female dove builds the nest. The male will fly about, gather material, and bring it to her. The male will stand on the female's back and give the material to the female, who then builds it into the nest. The nest is constructed of twigs, conifer needles, or grass blades, and is of flimsy construction. Mourning doves will sometimes requisition the unused nests of other mourning doves, other birds, or arboreal mammals such as squirrels.
That part in bold is how our home got chosen. We tried everything to get the parents to stop building their nest on the inside ledges of the porch but they ignored our 'barricades' and insisted by making a mess everywhere. Yes, they've done this dozens of times.
Finally, I decided to build something simple for them hence the white part you see in the photo which is a PVC pipe holding a cover in place. The babies grow very fast and at this stage the mother sometimes flies off to get food. Its at this point I was able to get close enough to get a picture without scaring her.
Baby Mourning Doves (Hover)
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Post Date: 4th May, 2017 - 7:59pm / Post ID: #
Doves Mourning Baby
JB,
Good stuff here. I love it. Nothing like helping nature… even inviting nature in to your home. Will they come back now year after year or is this a one time event?
Baby Mourning Doves Gallery Forum International
They rotate doing this every few weeks. Once the babies fly away there will be about a week's break and then the mother (Not sure if its the same one) will inspect the nest and sit there for a long time until more babies appear. My phone's camera is not good enough to get a good shot of what the mother looks like as I have to stand about 15 feet away from the nest but the below from Wikipedia is very accurate.
Image from Wikimedia public domain.
Baby Mourning Doves (Hover)
Baby Mourning Doves
She had two, they flew away and then I had to clean the area and put some rocks to stop them from nesting again. Unfortunately, we rent so we cannot afford to have them 'damaging' the place and throwing stuff below on other tenants. I think after several pregnancies we did our part. If we ever have our own home with land I will definitely setup some sort of outdoor sanctuary so they can avoid the hawks and have their young in peace.
Baby Mourning Doves
In an update to this, instead of having babies there (They can no longer do it because I have placed rocks in the space) a couple of love doves have taken the space to sleep together during the night and leave during the day. That spot in the house must be a sweet spot!
Post Date: 4th Jun, 2017 - 4:18pm / Post ID: #
Baby Mourning Doves International Forum Gallery
JB,
I think they think you are running a brothel. The word must be out on dovenet.com, do here, it's the happening spot for doves in love *wink*.
TOPIC: Baby Mourning Doves