Birdfeeders

From early spring to the end of summer, the male mourning dove can be heard with its distinctive “ooahoo, oo, oo oo” call. These large birds can be found in towns, along roadsides, on farms, in open grassland and even in open wooded areas. They are particularly fond of pine trees, and since we have many in our area, this is a common visitor to our platform feeders. They love cracked corn as well as seeds, so are often seen under the hanging tube feeders. They are frequent visitors to a birdbath which is located on the ground where they come for a drink of water. Even though they are ground feeders, they have figured out how to balance on a hanging platform feeder that has just been filled with tasty millet! Mourning doves as well as many other birds have crops in which they can store food. A crop is a pouch located in the bird’s neck. It can expand to hold up to 4-5 times as much food as the bird’s stomach can. These birds don’t need to feed often because they can carry a store of food with them. However, we find them as daily visitors to our yard. I have read that they can be quite aggressive around bird feeders, but that has not been the case in our yard. Maybe because we have multiple feeders in 3 different areas, they seem to intereact nicely with other species. They are however, not scared off by the aggressive jays.