Tag Archives: Mourning Dove

Nesting Mourning Dove Part 2

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This little Mourning Dove set up her nest in the rafters of the Tiki Hut at Harbour Club Villas and Marina. I’ve been photographing the nest and the parent doves for several weeks now. Here are the photos taken up until today, June 19, when I caught all the action of the little birds spreading and fluttering their wings and leaving the nest for the big wide world.

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Fluffing out those feathers so I was pretty sure the flight day was pretty close

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Feeding time as the little dove returns to the nest to feed his/her little ones.

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Getting big and ready to fly

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Time to spread those wings

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I’m watching you!!

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Away we go as the little birds leave the nest and head along the rafters

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Everyone safely down from the rafters of the Tiki Hut and onto the gravel in the parking lot

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both parents are watching out for the chicks

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They scuttled across the parking lot and the parents tucked them safely into a little sheltered spot off the drive way leading down to the marina

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They finally flew into the vegetation on our hill

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Sad to see them go…what am I going to photograph now?

Nesting Mourning Dove

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Mourning dove on her nest in the rafters of our tikihut.

We saw some twigs and straw sticking out of the rafters of the tikihut at Harbour Club Villas and Marina. As we went to clean it up, we discovered this pretty little Mourning Dove on its nest of twigs.

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Close up of its head and extraordinary colours around the eye.

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Here’s the nest up on a beam in Harbour Club’s tikihut by the pool.

The mourning dove is named for the rather haunting and sad cooing sound it makes. When it flies, it’s wings make a whistling sound. They are mostly seed eaters that feed on the ground and here at Harbour Club Villas, we often see them pecking at the gravel under our neem trees.

 

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The dove definitely didn’t let me out of her sight.

I couldn’t resist shooing it off the nest so that I could photograph the two eggs. Both parents will build a rather flimsy platform nest usually up high in a tree or a bush. The eggs hatch after 14 days or so and one is laid in the evening and the second one in the morning. Now I didn’t know that both parents care for the little ones. I have noticed another dove hanging around that has been spotted on the roof of the tikihut. I also learned that it’s usually the male that incubates the eggs during the day and the female at night. I don’t know that I can tell the difference between the male and the female.

 

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Two white eggs in a very sparse looking nest of twigs.

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My hand just to give you an idea of the size of the eggs

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Someone is watching me very carefully? Not sure if this is a male or female.

The mourning dove is 9-13 inches in length and has a wingspan of 15-18 inches. It has a grayish-brown body and quite a long, pointed tail that has a border of white. The dove’s head is small and rounded with a small, thin, black bill. Legs and feet are pink. The wing has black spots and there is a black spot under the eye. The eyes are brown and surrounded by a blue circle of skin. Males and females look alike, but the female is slightly smaller and duller in color.

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The dove started to puff up as I brought my camera closer.

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Fanning out wings and tail feathers to ward me off in the hopes I would go away.

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How beautiful are those tail feathers!

Both parents will feed the chicks that are also called squabs. They are fed pigeon milk which is a mixture of water, fat, minerals, and protein that the male and female mourning doves produce in their crop.  The crop is a sac that is found at the bottom of their esophagus.

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Two little baby doves huddled together……….no wonder the dove was protective.

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Close up of one of the little doves.

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The chicks will fledge when they are 2 weeks old.

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Nestlings are cared for by both parents and fledge in about 12-14 days.

In the days to come, I will add more photos as the chicks grow and leave the nest.

Marta

 

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com

Birds at Harbour Club Villas

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Bananaquits are usually just too fast to photograph but this one posed prettily in our tamarind tree.

All of a sudden there seems to be lots of singing, chirping, cooing and squawking going on around Harbour Club Villas. I’ve managed to photograph quite a few birds in the last week that seem to like this area……….Bananaquits, Doves, a Green Heron that tries to catch fish and drinks from the pool, the Northern Mockingbird locally called “Preacher Bird” and many Bahama Woodstar Hummingbirds.

This little Mourning Dove doesn't seem to be afraid of me as it pecks away at something in the gravel under the neem trees.

There are several doves here in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Every morning quite early, we hear the Zenaida Dove cooing. The Mourning Dove has more of a melancholy voice and has a long tail that fans out on take off and landing. We also have the Common Ground Dove and the White-winged Dove.

The Northern Mockingbird is a songbird, sometimes called the Nightingale or more locally 'Preacher Bird' because of their talkativeness and singing.

Every day the Green Heron visits the pool for a cooling drink. He'll squawk at guests to let them know this is his private drinking pool.

The Green Heron likes to fish and stays low to the water craning his neck out as he searches for food. Often, we can hear him in the trees grumbling to himself and making ‘skuk skuk’ noises. Heaven forbid if you disturb him as he will fly up complaining loudly and this has given it the local name of the ‘Kow Kow’.

Stalking a lizard on a Coconut frond.

A Mockingbird perched high on a branch and singing away.

A little Bahama Woodstar Hummingbird let me get really close one night as it perched on a branch.

Bananaquit with beautiful yellow breast preens on a branch of the Tamarind tree.

I managed to get a photo of this dove as it sat on a barrel.

 

I caught this Great Egret walking down the road from Rickie's or Flamingo Bar.

 

He was not about to let go of his lunch...a curly tailed lizard.

I’m glad that I have my camera with me most days. It was pure luck to sight this Great Egret just walking down the road. He must not have liked what was on the menu at Flamingo’s. Enjoy these photos and we hope all you bird lovers , birders and birdwatchers will visit our islands soon.

 

Marta

 

 

http://www.harbourclubvillas.com