SCOTT SHALAWAY Mourning doves are feathered generalists

I see them every day in my backyard and on power lines just about anywhere I go. I've seen them on the North Dakota prairie, on the Texas high plains, in the Colorado Rockies, on the Arizona desert, and throughout Mexico. I've seen them at airports and on city streets.
Mourning doves, identified by a small head and a long pointed tail attached to a plump dusty brown body, nest all across North America, from southern Mexico into Canada. They are generalists in every sense of the word. They eat seeds of all sorts and come to backyard feeders stocked with millet, safflower, nyjer, cracked corn, and sunflower seeds.
Nesting habits
Their nesting habits are equally broad. Here in the east, they build a flimsy platform of twigs in evergreen and deciduous trees along forest edges and fencerows and in orchards and backyards. Dove nests have also been found on window sills, atop outdoor lights, and on junked cars. Out west in deserts and prairies where trees are few, they're content to nest on the ground.
Pairs bond for the breeding season, which extends April through August. In some southern states they breed all year long. In northern states mourning doves raise at least two and often three broods per year.
The parents take turns incubating two white eggs for 14 days. Typically the female tends the nest from dusk to dawn, and the male incubates during the day.
Upon hatching, doves face a curious dietary dilemma. Adults eat seeds exclusively, but during the first four days of life, nestlings cannot digest seeds; they need protein. So instead of feeding their chicks animal food like most backyard birds, adult doves feed their young "pigeon's milk," a pale, nutritious liquid that adults produce in their crops (the expanded, food-storage portion of the gullet). Pigeon's milk consists of water, protein, fat, and minerals, a splendid diet for rapidly growing nestlings.
Several times each day the young induce their parents to regurgitate a helping of pigeon's milk by reaching into the parent's mouth to feed. Both chicks can feed simultaneously, one on each side of the parent's mouth. During the second half of the nestling period (as the nestlings digestive systems mature), adult doves feed their young increasing amounts of seeds.
When they leave
Young doves leave the nest at about two weeks of age, though they often return to the nest to roost for several more days. By 30 days of age, they are independent and join flocks of other juvenile doves.
Meanwhile, the parents have already begun another family. Females often lay a second clutch of eggs before the previous brood has left its nest tree. By producing a series of nests, doves multiply rapidly.
Broad diet, general habitat requirements, extended nesting season, and continuous reproduction during the breeding season are characteristics that describe an ideal game species. That's why most states classify mourning doves as game birds. Even after decades of harvest, the fall mourning dove population stands at about 475 million birds. It's safe to say mourning doves are truly a renewable resource.
To the nation's million-plus dove hunters, doves test gun skills like no other bird. An erratic flight path and short bursts of speeds up to 70 miles per hour make this hunt among the year's most challenging. A typical hunter uses eight shells for each dove taken, a statistic that suggests that dove hunting is for sharpshooters. The reward is tasty tablefare.
An objection
But some people object to the mourning dove's game bird status. In fact, few birds generate as much controversy as mourning doves. Perhaps it's the sorrowful, cooing song for which these birds are named. Perhaps it's the biblical legacy of doves as a universal symbol of peace. Or perhaps its the "family values" -- few wild creatures are so faithful to their mates and attentive to offspring.
In any case, mourning doves delight all who know them. And whatever your personal feelings, their success as biological generalists makes them a popular target for both hunters and birders.
sshalaway@aol.com