Baby Mourning Doves

[Anonymous]

As you might remember, I posted pics of the robins and their babies and after they grew up and flew off, the Doves took over and I posted a pic of Mama Dove on the nest...They have nested right on top of a wreath that Karen has hanging over the back deck light. The robins and doves do this every year.
The babies have hatched and both Mama and Papa Dove take their turns sitting on the nest and taking care of them. Seems like they have "shifts"..I was able to get a quick shot while they were off the nest for awhile. Kinda "cute ugly" little things.
I did a little Internet research and found that mourning doves mate for life and may have a few different broods between March and September. They feed them a very rich "crop milk" for the first 3 days and then gradually change to feeding them seed type food. Both parents take turns with the caring and rearing of the young...They are off the nest more now, but spend quite a bit of time caring for them. The adults are not startled or spooked at all by us. Quite a different parenting process than the robins we watched..Pretty cool!

 

[Anonymous]

Nice shot Doug!!

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

a dove laid eggs in a near tree by our house.unfortunately, i think squirrels stole the eggs except one. the mother has not returned in a day. should i take the egg to try and hatch it or just leave it?

 

[Anonymous]

You're just now responding to a thread that was posted almost a year ago? Wow! Anyways, sorry Lee, I don't know anything about the incubation of dove eggs. I do know that many birds will abandon eggs that have problems or have already died. I can only assume that the same theory applies to doves. Of course if all else fails then you can always go for the worlds smallest omelet. <img src="/metal/html/biggrin.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">