Mourning Dove nesting

[pauraque]

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.



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?



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

Comments

[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.