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