Zenaida dove mother in yard appears friendly (1 Viewer)

Mourning dove mother in yard appears friendly

Hi folks,

I'm new and have been filming a dove family that started in a hanging flower pot in my yard when July started. I've seen the bird every day and yesterday I spotted newborns. The bird exhibits very high tolerance for my presence, leading me to believe it may have bred in that pot before.. or, is it perhaps conditioned tolerance? Early on it would just fly away, then as days went by it would ruffle feathers and coo at me if I walked too close before.. now it allows me to pet it without any real fuss. I've been filming the whole thing for upload to youtube and my friends on the national gardening boards have been following along. But no one there really understands its natural behavior. Why doesn't it fight back or at least fly away, for example. There is a male that I also filmed swapping with her during the last 2 weeks. Why doesn't he attack? Are zenaida naturally friendly and tolerant of humans? It doesn't make sense that a dove would just make home in a pot at eye-level without some fear or trepidation toward my presence...

Mourning Doves (which is what your doves are, not the Zenaida Dove of the Caribbean) get very tame sometimes, part of the secret of their success in suburban settings. A pair that nested in my porch a few years ago let me get very close though I never tried to actually touch the birds.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/albums/72157627476687492

fugl said:

Mourning Doves (which is what your doves are, not the Zenaida Dove of the Caribbean) get very tame sometimes, part of the secret of their success in suburban settings. A pair that nested in my porch a few years ago let me get very close though I never tried to actually touch the birds.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fugl/albums/72157627476687492

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Yep, "very tame" is almost an understatement. I was concerned that it is too urbanized, but perhaps it has a suitable temperament for close proximity to humans. Well at least now you have definitive proof that you can actually pet them. I'm documenting everything on film as well.

Do you think we should NOT get close and/or pet them? I'm torn as to whether this improperly conditions them vs. they are naturally tame and likely to get along with humans anyway.

My knowledge and interest in birds only recently started - perhaps a natural extension of gardening and setting up a very green environment in my yard.
Right now I have more pictures of plants & insects than birds, but that may change.

Thanks very much for sharing your experience. I knew I came to the right forum! :t:

I would guess you're not causing any harm by continuing to interact with the doves the way you've been doing--as you say, it's hard to see how they could possibly become more habituated to humans than they already are. I would stay away from future nests, however, on the grounds that doing so can't possibly do harm to the birds while frequent visits and getting close and personal just might, particularly early in the breeding cycle. Typically, birds are much more likely to desert nests at the egg stage, particularly early in the incubation period, than those with nestlings.

Anyway, keep us informed about how things go with the nest. I'm particularly curious to know whether the fledglings will prove as approachable as their parents.

fugl said:

I would guess you're not causing any harm by continuing to interact with the doves the way you've been doing--as you say, it's hard to see how they could possibly become more habituated to humans than they already are. I would stay away from future nests, however, on the grounds that doing so can't possibly do harm to the birds while frequent visits and getting close and personal just might, particularly early in the breeding cycle. Typically, birds are much more likely to desert nests at the egg stage, particularly early in the incubation period, than those with nestlings.

Anyway, keep us informed about how things go with the nest. I'm particularly curious to know whether the fledglings will prove as approachable as their parents.

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Well as you can see in the photo from approximately 6:00pm yesterday, they don't seem to be alert enough to understand what is going on. Now it's 3:30pm and they can look at me and open their eyes if I make noises, but they fall back to sleep. It's still a bit early to tell, as the babies slip in and out of consciousness frequently. I would expect them to be quite alert and active this week. I would expect that they should know that I'm not their mother.

The mother seems to leave the nest around 6pm every day to eat, and returns within 20 or so minutes. I do notice that immediately upon this return, she is very protective and treats me as an intruder. If I even whistle or make clicking sounds at her she will respond aggressively (well.. about as aggressive as a dove can be, which is just a cute little cooing sound).

I posted a video recap of what I believed to have transpired between July 7th-21st, when the hatchlings first appeared for our view. For fear of spamming, you can search "Mourning Dove has Babies 7/21" on Youtube. I changed the title based on your information, which used to say Zenaida Dove". It's just a silly video for gardeners, who are not bird experts. I will post video 2 shortly based on whatever footage I have, and try to incorporate all this new information that I've been learning.




It's completely factually incorrect and based on what other gardeners told me.. but the emotional message of watching something have babies is still there.

One thing to bear in mind is that whereas your birds can tolerate/appear relatively undisturbed by your presence, other birds in nests won't be.

The problem is that other people may want to approach other nests, having seen you/others do it, and the consequences will probably be worse!

The internet is full of images of nests, and birds eggs in nests - some taken by responsible folk with licences or appropriate skills to do so, but no-one knows that and so anyone can go disturbing birds at will, often causing harm in the process.

It's partly an issue with social media unfortunately. Not to detract from your experience. If you can appreciate what the issues are I would try and make that point in a future video (or a side-note below your existing ones - that these birds appear tame, but that is unusual and birds in nests should generally be left well alone (some will desert the eggs as fugl says, and some predators have learnt to follow/watch other animals to/near nests eg crows))

That's not to detract from your experience (getting close to nature). Feeding animals/birds by hand should generally be a safer thing to do and do share online perhaps if you manage to do that in the future - maybe one day!

PPhanFX said:

I posted a video recap of what I believed to have transpired between July 7th-21st, when the hatchlings first appeared for our view. For fear of spamming, you can search "Mourning Dove has Babies 7/21" on Youtube. I changed the title based on your information, which used to say Zenaida Dove". It's just a silly video for gardeners, who are not bird experts. I will post video 2 shortly based on whatever footage I have, and try to incorporate all this new information that I've been learning.

Click to expand...

I'm also not a bird expert! But the babies are really cute and mom is much brave!. Can't wait to see the next video.

So today 7/26 progress is on schedule. One of the nestlings appears quite alert and responsive to my presence. It now makes vocalizations in response to my presence and can immediately tell that a foreigner is in its presence. Its sibling continues to fall asleep frequently.. it may be behind in terms of energy and development, or I'm just catching it asleep usually.

The mother appears to be quite fussy between 5:00-7:00pm, which I imagine to be family feeding time. Between 8:00am-5:00pm it is quite tolerant and subdued.. I was able to pet the mom without any real fuss in that exact position shown in the photo... At about 6:00pm she became cranky and will even coo in protest if I make loud vocalizations from 5 feet away. So I can see that these doves are responsive both to physical actions and to vocalizations humans make.

Death of a Fledgling

FOlks, I have bad news..

Just now 2:00pm PST, I noticed one of the birds was not in the nest! You may recall from my earlier post, I observed that there was one fledgling that appeared to be more active and alert, while the other appeared sleepy and unresponsive. Well, my worst fears were confirmed....

What a miserable sight!!! Directly below the pot, this is what I saw! It made my stomach feel sick. I reached down and slide my left hand under the small fledgling's unnaturally bent neck and cradled the fledgling's body to check for any signs of life. I knew the length of fall was approximately 6 feet directly onto hard pavement. No signs of breathing. Bird is still WARM. Time of death was certainly between 5:00am and 2:00pm, possibly shortly after lunch..


The clue may have been provided as early as yesterday in front of us... We saw the sibling in the background of the photo, while the healthy fledgling was alert and engaged. This is precisely the point from which it fell. At 5:00am this morning, shown above, I was very concerned and took this closeup of the weaker sibling. Its eyes were glazed over and it seemed unable to open its eyes. It was making weak chirping sounds, perhaps undernourished or ill - it felt like how someone is being trampled and crushed and trying to get oxygen.

My personal opinion is that this death was caused by siblicide. It could have been unintentional. Reasons include increased activity by the more developed fledgling, poor development of the its weaker sibling, high risk of death by falling from this small pot. Parent birds are not known to push their nestlings out, but siblings in various species (i.e. Eagles) may outright attack or kill other siblings. At least we will likely have one dove that makes it.

*sigh* Look at this - I think the mother bird KNOWS it lost one. I even showed her. It's between the usual 5-7 feeding hour when she's most fussy with me and won't even let me walk within 5 feet... but here, not an OUNCE of resistance or ruffling feathers.. she's just staring and blinking at me. I wonder if birds have enough emotional depth to connect with others in the event of death of a family member... certainly we know this in mammalian species.

Around 2:00pm I found the remaining fledgling on the ground, without enough energy to fly. The mother was nowhere to be found.


He did try to run away from me (which is good). However, he had insufficient strength to get away, clanging into cars and other houses. I cupped him in my hands and tried to help him... *flutter* *flutter* *plop*... no go.. need to help him out.

2:50pm PST

I made a makeshift container with birdseed, water, and cut watermelon. He hopped onto the ledge and has stayed there all day.

His mother found him and returned! I saw her nibble at the watermelon and the seeds.. probably gave him another feeding before she took off. You can see here, he just needed a nap. The mother appeared completely comfortable around me, even foraging within feet of me while her fledgling sat in the container. She took off again around 5:00pm...

Someone on my gardening forums suggested that I put him back up in the nest to avoid cats, which I've done. ... hopefully he'll be gone..

I've filmed everything, will perhaps make a video this weekend.

feeling sorry for that chicks , I'm waiting for your next video.

Do you have any update of that chicks?