common_nature | Mourning Dove nesting

I saw a nesting Mourning Dove today! It was in a tree by the river. Male and female Mourning Doves look alike, but females do 90% of the incubation, so this is probably the mom.

brownish gray bird sits on a nest of twigs

brownish gray bird sits on a nest of twigs

I'm sure I wouldn't have noticed her except that when I walked by she was fighting off a squirrel! I had never seen a squirrel go after a nesting bird before, but apparently they do eat eggs and even nestlings occasionally. Yikes. I was too surprised to get a video, but I did find a similar altercation posted on Youtube. After the squirrel gave up and left, the dove settled back down and I was able to get a decent picture. There was another dove perched nearby which I assume was the dad, but despite guides claiming that male doves defend the nest, during the squirrel incident he did absolutely nothing.

Doves and pigeons are notorious for building flimsy nests in strange and precarious places (so much that Reddit has r/StupidDoveNests devoted to them) so it's unsurprising that this one was basically a pile of twigs on a branch. At least it was well camouflaged, though.

Would you have spotted the nesting dove in this scene?

busy scene of criss-crossing leafless twigs and branches covering the nesting site

busy scene of criss-crossing leafless twigs and branches covering the nesting site

(Hint: She's in the dead center of the photo.)

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From:

pameladean

I found her because I knew she was there, but otherwise I wouldn't have noticed a thing.

I saw a blue jay repeatedly chasing a squirrel down the neighbors' fir tree yesterday. So there's probably a blue jay nest in that tree, but I haven't spotted it yet. I hope the squirrel will give up. There are plenty of bird feeders to steal from around here.

P.

pauraque

Jays are pretty fierce, I'm surprised a squirrel would mess with them!

full_metal_ox

Squirrel birthing season can run as late as early May; perhaps the squirrel had young to feed as well, and may have been accordingly aggressive.

ribirdnerd

For such a common bird, their nests are tough to find.

stonepicnicking_okapi

Ha! I love the hidden object game!🤣I wouldn't have spotted it but I like the cooing noise they make.

Me too!

picori

Oh, that's such a pretty picture!!! I've seen lots of mourning doves around myself as of late (they like to flock by my door) and I love seeing them so much. They're such pretty birds!

You must have some good seeds at your place!

yourlibrarian

Yeah their nests really are the definition of haphazard. I'm not surprised both at her determination with the squirrel nor the uselessness of the mate. It bears out what we've noticed with multiple mourning dove nests.

When I was a kid we used to get them nesting in the roof of our shed, and I can remember squinting up there like "is that a nest, or is it just sitting on some sticks?"

shirebound

during the squirrel incident he did absolutely nothing

Oh dear. No wonder mama mourning doves can be so fierce. Thanks for the glimpse!

My pleasure!

a_natural_beauty

Aww, those are one of my favorite kinds of birds. What a lovely photo. Thanks for sharing <3

I'm always happy to see them!

marycatelli

Possibly he was keeping an eye for a second squirrel.

A squirrel conspiracy!

liriaen

I never understood what people meant when they said dove nests were „slovenly“ - until we discovered 5 haphazard twigs and an egg pushed into a nook on our balcony :)

Five twigs is more than some will manage!

AND they manage to bring up kids on 5 twigs, too, so I doff my cap at their slovenly building skills.

cmcmck

The similar European species in the collared dove.

We have those introduced in much of the US too. Here we call them Eurasian Collared Doves. They do look very like our native Mourning Doves and people often mix them up. One easy way to tell them apart is that Mourning Doves have black spots on their wings (barely visible in my photo) while Collared Doves' wings are blank.

kaishin108

She is quite hidden! I am getting so that I don't care for squirrels. These tree squirrels around here are way too embolden!

She is beautiful, that mourning dove.

Yes!

zenigotchas

Badass mama dovey!

No I probably wouldn't have spotted her tbh, they picked a good spot to hide out.

It's impressive how hidden she was even without any leaves on the trees.

Evolution blessed her with the perfect browns to blend her into the bark!

turlough

I'm glad the dove managed to defend herself and her nest from the squirrel! I'm a little suprised a squirrel would try to raid a nest with such a large bird in attendance but maybe your squirrels are larger than our red ones?

If I hadn't know there was supposed to be a bird on a nest in the last photo I would never have noticed her!

It was an Eastern Gray Squirrel, which I do think is significantly bigger than your Eurasian Red Squirrels and certainly a match for a dove. (We also have American Red Squirrels which are smaller still.)

cyare

I would've never spotted her without your hint! :O

Definitely makes me wonder how many nesting birds I've walked straight past!

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wonder and joy and mystery in everyday things

Mourning Dove nesting

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