The Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) is a familiar bird across North America, recognized by its slender tail, small head, and soft, drawn-out calls. These doves are commonly found perching on telephone wires or foraging for seeds on the ground, showcasing their adaptability to various open and semi-open habitats. This article delves into the specific dietary preferences and feeding behaviors of the Mourning Dove, shedding light on how these habits contribute to their success in diverse environments.
Granivorous Diet: Seeds as the Primary Food Source
Unlike many other songbirds that consume insects, spiders, and other invertebrates, the Mourning Dove is almost entirely granivorous. Approximately 99% of their diet consists of seeds. They favor seeds of cultivated grains, grasses, ragweeds, and various other plants. Occasionally, they may consume snails, and very rarely, any insects. This strong preference for seeds shapes their foraging behaviors and habitat choices.
Foraging Behavior: Ground Feeding and Seed Storage
Mourning Doves primarily forage on the ground, a behavior that aligns with their preference for open spaces and fields. Their natural habitat is in fields and open spaces, so they’ll do much of their feeding on the ground. They are not particularly adept at maneuvering in tight spaces, such as dense trees or feeders with small perches.
A distinctive aspect of their feeding behavior is their ability to quickly gather large quantities of whole seeds. The Mourning Dove is casually feeding as it walks along the ground, without bothering to prepare its food beforehand. It picks up large quantities of whole seed as it forages and stores the meal in its crop (a sac-like storage chamber in the throat). This sac-like storage chamber in the throat, known as the crop, allows them to store food for later digestion. This adaptation allows the dove to expose itself to predators for only a short period of time. It then can fly to a sheltered area to digest its meal.
Drinking Habits: A Unique Adaptation
Mourning Doves, like pigeons and other members of the Columbidae family, possess a unique drinking ability. If you provide water for your backyard birds you may have noticed that your visitors collect a small amount of it in their bills and then tip their heads back to swallow. Not so with doves. Mourning Doves (Zenaida macroura), pigeons and others in the family Columbidae are able to drink by dipping their bills into water and sucking up the liquid. This contrasts with other birds that collect water in their bills and tip their heads back to swallow.
Read also: Comprehensive Guide to Mourning Geckos
Digestion: The Role of the Crop, Gizzard, and Grit
You may notice a flock of mourning doves quietly perched on tree branches in your yard or woodlands. Their previous meal is working its way from the crop to the first chamber of the stomach where digestive enzymes and acids start to break down the seed. In the second, larger stomach known as the gizzard, further breakdown continues. Birds that consume hard seeds, such as Mourning Doves, need the muscular gizzard to grind up the seed. To aid the grinding process, doves will ingest bits of gravel and sand, called grit.
The digestive process begins in the crop, where seeds are stored. From there, the meal moves to the first chamber of the stomach, where digestive enzymes and acids begin to break down the seeds. The second, larger stomach, known as the gizzard, plays a crucial role in further breaking down the seeds. Because Mourning Doves consume hard seeds, their muscular gizzard is essential for grinding them. To aid this process, they ingest small bits of gravel and sand, referred to as grit.
Feeding Adaptations: Implications for Habitat and Behavior
The feeding habits of Mourning Doves have significant implications for their habitat preferences and behaviors. Their preference for open spaces and ground feeding makes them common in farms, towns, open woods, roadsides, and grasslands. The Mourning Dove is found in almost any kind of open or semi-open habitat in temperate parts of North America, including forest clearings, farmland, suburbs, prairies, and deserts. It may be most common in edge habitats having both trees and open ground, but it is also found in some treeless areas. Avoids unbroken forest.
Their ability to store food in the crop allows them to minimize exposure to predators while foraging. They can quickly gather seeds and then retreat to a safer location to digest their meal.
Providing Food for Mourning Doves: Feeder Preferences
While some of your feeder favorites may make themselves scarce in the summer, it’s really easy to entice Mourning Doves to stop in for a snack. A Mourning Dove’s natural habitat is in fields and open spaces, so they’ll do much of their feeding on the ground. When it comes to maneuvering around tight spaces - such as a dense tree or a feeder with small perches - Mourning Doves have a tough time of it. A platform feeder or a large hopper feeder can both comfortably accommodate Mourning Doves. If things are getting crowded and competitive with the other birds, Mourning Doves will also readily take to a ground feeder. But if you set out feeders that give them the space to comfortably perch and keep their balance, you can sit back and enjoy their visit. In fact, you’ll find they usually eat in pairs, which could reflect the fact that these birds mate for life. Lyric Supreme Mix is packed with sunflower seeds, peanuts, millet, and other nuggets to entice the Mourning Doves in your neighborhood.
Read also: What Eurasian Collared-Doves Eat
Habitat and Distribution: Adapting to Human-Altered Environments
Does very well in man-altered habitats. Mourning Dove numbers probably have increased significantly with the increasing settlement of North America. The European settlement of the continent, with its clearing of the forest, likely helped this species increase.
Breeding and Parental Care: Pigeon Milk and Multiple Broods
Incubation is by both parents, about 14 days. Both parents feed young "pigeon milk." Young leave nest at about 15 days, usually wait nearby to be fed for next 1-2 weeks. One pair may raise as many as 5-6 broods per year in southern areas.
Conservation Status and Threats: Adapting to Change
Choose a temperature scenario below to see which threats will affect this species as warming increases.
Identifying Juvenile Birds: A Matter of Appearance
With the breeding season over you are likely to see Mourning Doves flocking and roosting together. See if you can pick out the juvenile birds in the group. These youngsters do not possess the creamy, smooth appearance of the adults. Scaly-looking young bird sometimes mistaken for Inca Dove or Common Ground Dove.
Read also: Mental Health Advocacy