Mourning Dove—photos and links

{under construction—coming soon!}

You can hear the “mournful” call here; scroll down a bit to the box entitled “typical voice.”   Sometimes, people think they’re hearing an owl when they hear this call early in the morning.  The primary owl that folks might hear about that time is the Great Horned Owl; you can hear its “Who’s awake?  Me too!” call here.  However, Great Horned Owls nest very early in the year—you can hear them calling to establish territories and attract mates in January.  So they are pretty much through breeding season—and the need to call—by the time the Mourning Doves are back in our area and calling.

The Mourning Dove write-up mentioned the scaly appearance of the newly fledged Mourning Doves.  You can get a good sense of that in the photo below (thanks to Wikimedia Commons).  The fine white tips of the feathers wear off pretty quickly and the fledglings soon can be differentiated from the adults by their slightly wacky, “what is this world all about?” manner.