My backyard is a home to many Mourning doves & Collard Eurasians, Though Mourning Doves are pretty common in Northern California, Eurasian Doves are not so much but are working fiercely towards that mark. This became apparent during the CSU fires in 2020.
While everyone in my neighborhood was mandated to evacuate, we were waiting our turn, with smoky Red and orange skies, as if we lived on Mars or something instead of California. The atmosphere saturated with thick dust, heavy fire debris, ambers and smoke penetrating our lungs. State of emergency was declared , totaling a sum of almost 10,000 fires and almost four & a quarter million acres annihilated , destroying over ten thousand structures, leaving animals and people homeless burning down ecosystems and communities. During this bleak time a mourning Dove fledgling was left astray, no family or place to go. I found it sipping water running through the cracks of the pavers in my backyard, looking so vulnerable, and completely lost.
Well, I could not leave it stranded, so decided that he was my fire baby. A hand span of size , almost as big as an adult House Sparrow, was adorable and out of place . Initially he was very scared , but little by little he accepted his demise and started behaving like the rest of the birds and the few Doves, being finicky and picky on what they want to eat or spill. He loved Sour Sunflower seeds, white in color , never getting tired of eating them.
later he was joined by many other Mourning & Collard Doves, i loved there cooing, sitting on the fence asking for sunflower , cracked corn and millet seeds and constantly being mischievous. He preferred feeding on the ground or feeding on the platform with seeds strewn on , where there was room to perch. As he grew big he would perch on the fence or a tree branch , waiting me to lay the seeds on the ground, while at times mean Squirrels would inhale everything in site. Doves or all birds in general have mates, they always hang in pairs
A little bit about Doves, they belong to Columbidae family, birds of stout necks and short slender beaks. and primary feed on seeds This may be unknown to a lot of folks that Doves box sexes, male & Female carry milk to feed their young. Pigeons are another birds that belong to this family.
Here is a picture of the Fledgling of Mourning Dove:
BLOGGERJEE Dated JUNE 21st 2021