Hello,
I have a question about the behavior of mourning dove parents. On Friday, my wife was trimming some tree branches and accidentally destabilized a mourning dove nest that she hadn't known was there. The nest had a parent dove (who flew away) and two nestlings. She attempted three fixes for the nest, eventually putting it in an empty hanging basket, but scared away the parent each time she did this. We were worried that she might have frightened away the parents for good, but we saw a dove on that nest for a large portion of Saturday, when we had a lot of rain.
So, we were feeling comfortable that all was well...but then, Saturday night, we observed from our house that there was no bird on the nest overnight. We also did not see the parents all day Sunday, nor Sunday night, nor this morning. So, we're concerned that the parents might have abandoned the nest after all, even though we haven't been near the nest since Saturday morning. Does anyone know if this is normal behavior for doves and nestlings? Do the parents leave nestlings alone overnight? The nestlings were still alive as of this morning, but I can't tell if they've been fed recently. I've contacted two area wildlife rehabilitators, but haven't received any response yet.
I have a question about the behavior of mourning dove parents. On Friday, my wife was trimming some tree branches and accidentally destabilized a mourning dove nest that she hadn't known was there. The nest had a parent dove (who flew away) and two nestlings. She attempted three fixes for the nest, eventually putting it in an empty hanging basket, but scared away the parent each time she did this. We were worried that she might have frightened away the parents for good, but we saw a dove on that nest for a large portion of Saturday, when we had a lot of rain.
So, we were feeling comfortable that all was well...but then, Saturday night, we observed from our house that there was no bird on the nest overnight. We also did not see the parents all day Sunday, nor Sunday night, nor this morning. So, we're concerned that the parents might have abandoned the nest after all, even though we haven't been near the nest since Saturday morning. Does anyone know if this is normal behavior for doves and nestlings? Do the parents leave nestlings alone overnight? The nestlings were still alive as of this morning, but I can't tell if they've been fed recently. I've contacted two area wildlife rehabilitators, but haven't received any response yet.