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Many people have heard the mournful supplications and honking of the mourning dove. After all, they have a wide range that covers all of Central and North America. Though his hoot is often confused for an owl, the mourning dove is a very different kind of bird that is easily recognizable by its clear silhouette and the fact that they often appear in pairs.
The food mourning doves eat also separates them from owls and other birds. You won’t see a mourning dove diving down to catch a vole. Let’s see what you can put in your garden to entice mourning doves to come back and fill your patio with song.
What Foods Do Mourning Doves Eat?
mourning doves eat seeds because they are granivores, preferring seeds over any other food. They will also consume grains, some fruits, herbs, and wild grasses. They prefer to eat food that is on the ground and that is easy to obtain. They are also highly opportunistic eaters, consuming some foods that are only available seasonally.
Mourning doves prefer to stay in areas with greater food diversity. Remember, these birds mate for life, so they need consistent food for every member of the pair.
A list of foods eaten by pigeons
Although mourning doves are granivores and seeds make up almost all of their diet, they eat many different foods. Here are many of the specific foods that mourners regularly consume:
- peanuts
- Maize
- Millet
- Buckwheat
- Rye
- pine nuts
- Foxtail
- sunflower seeds
- canary grass
- Wheat
- safflower
- Rapeseed
- witch grass
Interestingly, mourning doves prefer sunflower seeds and other foods that they can see without having to search the ground for them. Another point of interest is that these birds tend to choose food based on their size.
For example, studies showed that mourning doves prefer shorter and narrower corn seeds so they have the easiest foraging experience.
Although it is an extremely rare event, mourning pigeons have been observed eating other foods when their favorite foods are not plentiful. These birds occasionally eat insects to support their diet, but they will almost always prefer to eat seeds.
How do mourning doves search for food?
This species has interesting foraging behaviour. They spend a lot of time on the ground looking for food, but these birds are not known for scratching the earth and looking for something to eat. These birds prefer to look on the ground and immediately look for visible food.
Like some other birds, Mourning Doves will feed while on the ground, filling their crop. This pouch on the front of their neck can store food and start the digestion process. Often mourning doves will fill their harvest and then retreat to a safer location where they can digest their food in peace.
Their harvest is also where adult birds produce crop milk, a substance that is fed to the young.
What Foods Do Mourning Doves Eat in Winter?
Winter is a time when food becomes scarcer for all birds. Mourning doves, like many other birds, begin to migrate south in the autumn months. Some birds leave for warmer states in the US, while others move further south to Mexico and Central America.
During the fall, these birds have been observed feeding on foxtail millet in southern states, and they also forage around recently harvested cornfields.
In the winter months, mourning doves will continue to forage for their normally desired food. Migration to warmer climates often provides them with abundant foraging opportunities. Not all of these birds migrate, however.
Some birds stay relatively close to their breeding grounds throughout the winter, where they forage, become less active, and feed on their favorite foods or secondary foods when their first choices are unavailable.
What do baby mourners eat?
Mourning doves only eat crop milk for the first week of their lives. Both male and female adult birds can make this substance in their crops, the esophageal sac where they store food and begin the digestion process.
Cereal milk is made from cells of the crop lining, which provide the baby birds with the necessary proteins and fats. While producing and feeding their babies, the birds cannot eat seeds because the young birds are not prepared to digest them.
In the second and third weeks of life, baby birds eat partially digested seeds from their parents. After that, they are willing to look for seeds themselves.
Mourning Pigeon Predators
Unlike other birds that eat from hanging feeders or catch their food and take off, the Mourning Dove eats while lying fairly still on the ground. While foraging, these birds are in immense danger from their
p
redators.
Among the most common predators are:
These creatures prey on the mourning doves, especially the young. If you see these birds in your yard, try to keep your house cats indoors so the birds can eat in peace.
Mourning doves eat seeds from various plants throughout the year, and every now and then you will see one eating fruit or the stray insect. They are great foragers who take what is available without digging through the dirt, even if it puts them at risk from some common predators.
Their wide range of suitable foods, even if mainly seeds, allows them to live in many different locations in the Western Hemisphere. If you watch and listen to it, chances are you will discover this species near you.
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