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Saturday, November 12, 2016

Migration on Mourning Doves

While mourning doves are common at the bird feeder all year-round in Michigan, the doves you see in winter may not the same as the ones you see in summer. Mourning Doves begin to move south from September to November, with immature doves moving first, followed by adult females and then by adult males. However many male doves don’t migrate at all, and remain in mid-Michigan to get a head start on establishing a good breeding territory early in the spring.

They like to feed early in the morning along with the cardinals in the winter and are also usually the last to feed at dusk. They eat a variety of seeds, insects, and berries. They especially like safflower seeds. They stuff their crop until it bulges and then fly off to digest slowly. They'll pick up seeds from the ground unless your feeder has a large perching area for them to feed comfortably.

If a hawk flies by, you see the doves blast off into the air making a whistling sound as it goes. This high-pitched whistle comes from the bird’s powerful wings. It is believed that the whistling is a built-in alarm system, warning others that danger may be near, while simultaneously startling a would-be predator.

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Jenn Jilks said...

We have mourning doves at the feeder all the time!

Joy K. said...

We had almost no mourning doves this year in McKinney TX. All white-winged doves this year.