U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Mourning Dove
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Wildlife Highlight: Mourning Dove
The mourning dove, the most widespread and abundant game bird in
North America, is found from southern Canada, throughout the United
States to Central America and the Caribbean. Throughout its range, the
mourning dove prefers open habitats, such as open woods, deserts and
forest edges, and has adapted well to cities and suburbs, pastures,
cultivated fields and other altered landscapes. In Florida, the species
is commonly spotted year-round on backyard bird feeders and in a wide
variety of habitat types. The population increases in the winter with
the influx of northern birds.
The mourning dove has a small head, a gray-brown body, and a long,
pointed tail with white outer edges. Overall, it has a distinctive
streamlined silhouette. Its common name refers to its characteristic
mournful hooting song. The mourning dove is a seed eater and feeds
mostly on the ground. When nesting, females lay two eggs in a flimsy
nest built of twigs, pine needles or grass stems placed on a horizontal
branch of a tree or shrub. Several broods are raised each season.
Mourning doves are attentive parents, incubating the eggs in shifts so
that they are rarely unattended.
Other members of the pigeon and dove family native to Florida include
the rare white-crowned pigeon and the small and stocky common
ground-dove. The white-winged dove, Eurasian collared-dove, rock dove
(the familiar “city pigeon”), and ringed turtle-dove are non-natives
found in Florida. The Eurasian collared-dove has spread throughout
Florida and is rapidly colonizing North America. This introduced species
is slightly larger and heavier than the mourning dove and has a distinct
black line, or collar, across the back of its neck.
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