Watching out my front window, I noticed a bird flying to my front porch repeatedly at the end of April.

The usual house finch is much smaller than the bird I noticed, so continuous observation gave me clues along with the sticks left on my front porch. This bird was building a nest on the top of my wreath and I knew it was a mourning dove (Aeneida madroura). This was a new experience as I have had house finches nest in my wreath in past years.

Mourning doves are native to America and are common in southern Canada and throughout the United States, although many northern ones migrate south in winter.

Both female and male coloration is similar, yet if closely observed, the male has slightly brighter colors. Although both parents incubate the eggs, the female’s duller color helps camouflage her, providing a safe, protective nest.

Our local doves have a stream-lined appearance when flying, a small head in relation to their body and a long, pointed tail, and their wings make a high-pitched sound when taking off in flight. Undoubtedly you have heard the “coo” of the mourning dove that is often mistaken for an owl.

Preferring seeds, mourning doves are ground feeders, consuming 15 to 20 percent of their body weight in seeds daily, and after finding a safe perch, they will then digest the seeds. Observing mourning doves can be easy by scattering corn, millet, rye, barley, oats or sunflower seeds on the ground. Farmers consider them pests because of their habit of dining on the seeds planted in fields in the spring. Their ground eating habits make them vulnerable to predators such as fox, coyote, hawks and other carnivorous birds.

Pairing with one mate, they may stay with that mate for life. The male will become territorial after mating and the pair form a bond. They begin to build a nest which can last from 10 hours over three to four days, passing straw, twigs and needles to each other. The nest is flat and weak, often destroyed by the weather. Their choice of my recessed front porch was excellent!

Each clutch has two white eggs incubated for 15 days by both parents. After hatching, they feed the chicks “pigeon milk,” a masticated liquid from their crop. The young tap their parents’ bills to stimulate regurgitation of the milk, and seeds are slowly added to the milk until the chicks eat mostly seeds, preparing them for foraging. Two or three nestings occur in one season.

Mourning doves live on an average of 1 1/2 years in the wild, but according to the University of Michigan, one lived an amazingly 19.3 years.

Swift in flight, these birds migrate south and may fly over 1000 miles, returning to our area in late winter to early spring, where I find them under my bird feeder. I look forward to seeing them as a sign that spring is soon to arrive. These lovely birds are a pleasure to see in my garden, and I was honored to loan my wreath as their nesting site. To learn more about these beautiful birds, go to: https://go.osu.edu/mourningdove.