Mourning Doves Diet

The mourning dove lives in every one of the lower 48 states in the United States, and is a year-round resident with the exception of the Dakotas, most of Montana and northern parts of Minnesota and Wyoming. The mourning dove is a common sight on telephone lines and the sad sounds it produces give the species its name. With an estimated 350 million mourning doves living in the United States the bird must have a diet that allows it to survive in many ecosystems.

  1. Types

    • Seeds comprise as much as 99 percent of the diet of the typical mourning dove. The birds will gobble down the seeds of plants such as pigweed, ragweed, foxtail and wild sunflowers. The seeds of cultivated crops such as millet, wheat and sorghum are favorites. Snails and insects supplement the seeds portion of the mourning dove's menu. The mourning dove will also partake of such plants as wild grasses, herbs and some weeds. Berries are part of their diet in certain scenarios.

    Size

    • The average mourning dove adult is between 9.1 and 13.4 inches long and has a wingspan of about 18 inches. Males weigh as much as 6 ounces, with the females a half-ounce less in most instances. The mourning dove, during the course of a typical day, will eat from 12 to 20 percent of its own body weight, which figures out to about 71 calories.

    Geography

    • In some of the colder Plains states mourning doves may form flocks and migrate to avoid prolonged spells of bitter cold. In fall and winter, the birds descend on crop fields and look for seeds. They often wind up near a body of water such as a river, where they can drink water. Huge numbers of mourning doves will congregate where water is at a premium during the cooler dawn and twilight hours.

    Pigeon Milk

    • Few birds are as prolific as the mourning dove, which in warm climates may produce as many as six separate broods every year. The young nestlings consume what biologists term pigeon milk, a substance the mother and father doves secrete from the linings of their crop. This liquid has many proteins and fats and is the primary source of nourishment for the chicks for the first three days of their lives.

    Considerations

    • While a mourning dove will walk along the ground and push aside any litter that may be covering a potential meal, the birds do not scratch away at the earth like many species will. The mourning dove is the most hunted game bird in America. One problem some mourning doves encounter is that in areas where people hunt them heavily, using lead shot, the birds sometimes mistake the shot for seeds and consume it where it falls in the fields. The mourning dove is a frequent visitor to bird feeders, usually glad to eat from the ground any seeds other birds knock from the feeders.