Reply #166: Mourning doves are a trip and a half. [View All]

A beautiful bird, for starters, but they have a LOT of quirks.



They don't feed from feeders, only from the ground, but if you use a feeder, the smaller birds like sparrows and finches scatter seed everywhere anyway, so the mourning doves kind of hang out in the trees and on fences or roofs and watch for that kind of activity, and then it's "dinner is served."

One time I watered the lawn and a mourning dove went out on the grass, after the sprinkler stopped, and burrowed...just surrounded itself with the cool, wet grass. I've seen them do the same thing in the dirt, under a shady tree.

And sometimes, when several of them are feeding, one will have what only can be described as a "hissy fit"...chasing one of the others around in a circle, then they both stop, then they go back to eating.

My favorite part, though, is when they are just hanging out, checking out the lay of the land...they look so serene.