Wildlife Habitat Management Institute

Mourning Dove

(Zenaida macroura)

May 2005 Fish and Wildlife Habitat Management Leaflet Number 31

General information

The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is one of the 

most widely distributed and abundant birds in North 

America. Fall populations of this game bird in the 

United States are estimated to be slightly more than 

400 million birds. In recent years, the annual harvest 

by hunting in the United States has been estimated at 

18 to 25 million birds, similar to the harvest of all other migratory game birds combined. Mourning doves 

are highly adaptable, occurring in most ecological 

types except marshes and heavily forested areas.

The mourning dove is a medium-sized member of the 

Columbidae family. While this family consists of approximately 300 species of doves and pigeons, only 

8 species, including the mourning dove, are native 

to the United States. The mourning dove is approximately 11 to 13 inches in length, with a 17– to 19–inch 

wingspan, weighing on average 4.4 ounces. Mourning 

doves have delicate bills and long, pointed tails. They 

are grayish-brown and buff in color, with black spots 

on wing coverts and near ears. The tail and wing 

feathers are gray, except for black-bordered white 

tips on the tail. Their eyes are brown and bordered 

by light blue bare skin, while legs and feet are a dull 

red. Males are slightly larger than females, and slightly more brightly colored. Males have more of a pinkish wash on the breast and a brighter blue-gray coloration on top of the head. Juveniles have light buff tips 

to their feathers, giving a scaly appearance.

Mourning doves are monogamous and form strong 

pair bonds that persist during at least one nesting season. The breeding season is among the longest of all 

North American birds, with peak nesting activity occurring in late spring/early summer and a decline beginning in July. At the beginning of the breeding season, unpaired males devote considerable time to 

perch cooing and performing displays such as flapping/gliding flight to attract females. When performing the flapping/gliding flights, a male leaves his cooing perch with a vigorous and noisy flapping of his 

wings, rising up to 100 feet in the air. He then extends his wings and begins a long spiraling glide back 

down. The perch coo is one of the few vocalizations 

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura)

that mourning doves make. It consists of one note followed by a higher one, then three to five notes held at 

great length, and it is used by males to court females. 

A female will respond to the perch coo in one of three 

ways: she will fly away, initiating a pursuit chase; she 

will ignore the male and continue preening or feeding; or she will permit copulation and formation of the 

pair bond.

Once the pair bond is made, the male takes the initiative in nest-site selection. He selects small twigs and 

delivers them to the female, who arranges them in 

a nesting platform. Clutch size is small, usually two 

eggs per nest. Sometimes three or four eggs are found 

in a nest, due to “dump nesting” where a female lays 

her eggs in another’s nest. Eggs are white and nests 

are usually open, making them easy targets for predators, including blue jays, grackles, crows, housecats, 

red squirrels, and rat snakes. Both parents incubate 

the eggs; eggs hatch in 14 to 15 days. Repeated nesting in a season is necessary to maintain population 

levels, as average mortality rates can be as high as 58 

percent per year for adults and 69 percent per year for 

juveniles. Generally, mourning doves can successfully 

raise two to three clutches per season in northern areas and five to six clutches per season in warmer areas.

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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

This leaflet provides an introduction to the habitat requirements of the mourning dove and is intended to 

assist landowners and managers develop mourning 

dove management plans. The success of any speciesspecific management plan depends on targeting the 

needs of the desired species and analyzing existing 

habitat conditions to ensure that all required habitat 

elements are present. This leaflet provides a number 

of practical habitat management practices that can be 

used to improve and manage mourning dove habitat. 

Landowners and managers are encouraged to enlist 

the expertise of wildlife and natural resource professionals to help identify additional habitat management needs and actions.

Distribution 

The mourning dove is indigenous to North America 

and is widespread throughout the continent. Its 

breeding distribution includes southern Canada, all 

of the continental United States, northern Mexico, 

and the Caribbean Islands. The winter distribution 

extends from northern California across the central United States to Iowa, southern Michigan, southern Ontario, New York, and New England, extending 

south through the breeding distribution over most of 

Mexico and Central America.

Mourning doves are migratory in the northern part of 

their distribution. Those that breed farther north winter farther south. Each migratory location receives 

doves from divergent breeding locations. For the 

most part, birds living in New England and the midAtlantic over winter in the Carolinas; birds living in 

eastern and mid-central United States over winter in 

southeastern United States (including LA, MS, AL, GA, 

FL); and birds living in central United States over winter in Mexico and Central America. Texas, California, 

and Arizona serve as resting points for more southern 

migrants. Spring migration begins in March, progresses slowly through April, and ends in mid to late May. 

Autumn migration begins at the end of August and 

ends in November. Most migration routes are overland.

As a result of environmental factors, mourning doves 

exhibit geographical morphological variations. For 

example, plumage varies from darker in the east to 

paler in the west; wings vary from shorter in southern 

areas to longer in northern areas; and toe length decreases from east to west. These geographical variations have led to the classification of mourning dove 

subspecies (table 1).

Habitat requirements

General

Mourning doves are adapted to a wide variety of habitat conditions, but depend particularly on edge cover and mixed successional stages throughout their 

range. They primarily inhabit woodland/grassland 

edges. They prefer open or semi-open lands and are 

primarily farm game birds that thrive where grain 

crops are grown. Mourning doves generally do not 

feed in areas containing heavy, densely-matted vegetation; bare ground on which seeds are available and 

visible is preferred.

Breeding and wintering distribution of the mourning 

dove (adapted from Mirarchi and Baskett 1994).

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of 

mourning doves inhabiting the Canadian prairies over 

the past several decades, due to an increase in their 

preferred habitat. This is attributed to the establishment of trees in windbreaks and shelterbelts, the advent of agriculture with plentiful grain seeds as a stable food supply, the creation of small water supplies 

for livestock, and the erection of telephone lines and 

power lines used for perching. Likewise, in the Great 

Plains, the conversion of large tracts of treeless prairie to domestic grains and farmsteads has created an 

excellent combination of food and nesting cover for 

mourning doves.

Food

Seeds obtained from native or cultivated plants make 

up more than 99 percent of a mourning dove’s diet. 

Many of the most favored foods are seeds produced 

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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

on herbaceous plants found in early successional habitats. Mourning doves are selective foragers and their

feeding habits depend on what seeds are available in a

given region. Choice foods are those that are readily eaten when encountered, whereas fair foods are eaten only

rarely when choice foods are present. Table 2 offers

guidelines for mourning dove choice and fair foods.

Mourning doves eat what is visible and readily accessible in light ground cover. They do not scratch or use 

their bill to dig for food. Rather, food is eaten directly 

off the ground. They locate food by sight or by observing other birds feeding. Mourning doves will often return repeatedly to the same feeding site until the food 

source is exhausted. Most agricultural seeds consumed are from spillage after harvest, from livestock 

feeding, or located around storage buildings.

Grit (sand and gravel) is ingested and retained in the mourning dove’s gizzard to help grind and pulverize hard foods. 

Grit is available along gravel or mud flats, road edges, or in 

sandy soil.

Table 1 Mourning dove subspecies

Nesting cover 

Mourning doves are best adapted to and most closely associated with agricultural habitats, but will nest 

in many different habitat types. They typically nest 

along the edges of fields, pastures, or clearings; nests 

are seldom found in densely wooded areas. Nests are 

built in both coniferous and deciduous trees, shrubs, 

and vines. Tree nesting is most common, but they will 

nest on building ledges, chimneys, and the ground 

in the absence of trees or shrubs. Nesting habitat 

is not usually a limiting factor for mourning doves. 

However, it is important to have an interspersion of 

vegetation types for nest site selection.

Mourning doves are notoriously poor nest constructers. Nests are often no more than a platform of small 

twigs, grasses, pine needles, or similar materials 

found around nest sites. They will frequently use previously constructed nests (of mourning doves, other 

birds, or squirrels).

Common name

(Scientific name) Characteristics Range

Eastern mourning dove longer wings, longer toes, shorter Eastern U.S., Bermuda, Bahamas

(Z. m. carolinensis) bill, darker in color

Western mourning dove longer wings, longer bill, shorter Western U.S. including prairie

(Z. m. marginella) toes, paler in color grasslands, southern Canada, 

Mexico 

Panama mourning dove shorter wings, shorter legs, longer Western Panama

(Z. m. turturilla) bill, pale grayish in color 

West Indian mourning dove shorter wings, dark-to-medium Western West Indies, Florida keys

(Z. m. macroura) toned, deep buff-colored belly 

Clarion Island mourning dove larger feet, larger bill, Clarion Island (off the west coast 

(Z. m. clarionensis) very dark brownish of Mexico)

Table 2 Mourning dove food 1

Choice foods Fair foods

Agriculturally 

Produced 

Bread wheat, corn, grain sorghum, millets, oats (pieces), 

peanuts (hulled), sesame, sudangrass, sunflower 

(oil varieties)

Barley, buckwheat, cowpea, 

rice, rye, soybean

Trees Pines, sweetgum 

Grasses Bristlegrasses, broadleaf signalgrass, canary grasses, 

panicums, paspalums, switchgrasses

Goosegrass, Johnsongrass

Forbs Amaranths, crotons, various euphorbs, hemp, pokeberry, 

sunflower (common)

Smartweed

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Some of these plants are considered to be invasive species in some areas. While their seeds may benefit mourning doves, these plants 

should be avoided in favor of native species. Landowners should consult with local NRCS offcials to find out which preferred mourning 

dove foods are native in their area.

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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Did you know?

Both parents nourish young mourning doves with 

crop milk, a milk-like substance consisting of cells 

sloughed from the parent’s crop wall. The crop 

gland is located at the base of the neck in front of 

the breastbone and it functions as part of the digestive system as a food storage organ. After a few 

days, crop milk is gradually supplemented by seeds, 

and at fledging (11-15 days), young mourning doves’ 

diets are the same as their parents’.

Roosting cover

Like nesting cover, roosting cover is provided by various habitat types. These include coniferous and deciduous trees, brushy thickets, dead snags, and power-line right-of-ways. Hedgerows and shelterbelts also 

provide excellent roosting sites for mourning doves. 

Mourning doves will often sit in roosting sites before 

flying down into a field to feed.

Water

Mourning doves require fresh surface water for drinking on a regular basis. Puddles, ponds, and stream 

edges are suitable water sources. Doves will alight on 

unvegetated or lightly vegetated spots where visibility is good and where predators cannot easily hide, 

and where they can walk easily to the water’s edge. 

Sandbars, gravel bars, and mud flats provide such 

drinking sites.

Limiting factors 

Table 3 provides a summary of mourning dove habitat requirements. For planning purposes, use table 

4 to subjectively rate the availability and quantity of 

mourning dove habitat within a planning area, based 

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Both parents care for the young by nourishing them with 

crop milk.

on habitat requirement descriptions listed in table 3. 

Habitat communities and components that are absent 

or given a low rating are likely limiting mourning dove 

habitat quality. Management actions should be taken 

to address these limiting factors. Land uses on adjacent properties may need to be considered to accurately rate the quality of a habitat management area 

for mourning doves.

Habitat management recommendations

Maintenance of mourning doves in a healthy, productive state is a primary management goal. To this end, 

management of mourning doves includes assessment 

of population status, regulation of harvest, and habitat management. In general, the primary management 

tool is through hunting regulations, including season length, bag limits, and shooting hours. The regulations generally remain the same year-to-year, but 

have been changed in response to population trends 

in an attempt to alter the number of doves harvested 

in a given year. While these regulations are in place at 

the federal and state levels, there are concrete actions 

that landowners can take to increase the numbers 

of mourning doves on their properties. Ultimately, a 

landowner’s goal should be to provide a continuous 

supply of diverse and highly preferred foods throughout the year, not just during hunting season.

Feeding fields are created to attract mourning doves, 

primarily for hunting purposes. Fields that are most 

used by mourning doves are characterized by an 

abundance of small seeds scattered on the surface 

of relatively bare ground with little horizontal cover. 

Seeds that will attract mourning doves include wheat, 

millet, sunflowers, corn or grain sorghum, peanuts, 

buckwheat, barley, and annual rye. Fields may be varied in shape, but should be at least 2 acres in size. For 

hunting, larger fields of 20 to 60 acres are recommended for safety and to allow hunters to spot the doves to 

prepare the shot. A general rule of thumb is to provide 

at least 1 acre for each gun on the field. By regulating 

hunter pressure, landowners can extend quality dove 

hunting on a feeding field well into the season. To 

keep doves coming into a field, it is important to limit hunting to two to three times per week. If the property is large enough, the fields that are hunted can be 

rotated, which will allow more frequent hunting. For 

maximum effectiveness, a given field should be hunted only a half-day per week and hunters should stay 

on the outside of the field.

Feeding fields can be agricultural fields managed 

in such a way as to provide habitat for mourning 

doves, or they can be fields maintained specifically 

for mourning dove habitat. Table 5 outlines the vari4
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

ous management practices that can be used for either kind of feeding field. Fields with natural vegetation (those not used for agricultural purposes) can be 

managed for improved mourning dove habitat. Soil 

disturbance, such as light discing, mowing, or burning, prior to or early in the growing season will stimulate seed-producing annuals and attract mourning 

doves. In areas of extensive crop and grasslands, coniferous trees can be planted for nesting and roosting 

sites.

Table 3 Summary of mourning dove habitat requirements

Habitat component Habitat requirements

Food Seeds from native or cultivated plants; seed must be visible and readily accessible on 

the ground; sand or gravel must be available

Nesting cover Trees or shrubs on the edges of fields, pastures, or clearings

Roosting cover Trees, shrubs, or power lines on the edges of fields, pastures, or clearing.

Water Fresh surface water in puddles, ponds, or streams; must have unvegetated area 

around water source on which to alight

Table 4 Factors that can limit habitat quality/quantity

Habitat Availability/quality

component High Medium Low Absent

Food 

Nesting cover 

Roosting cover 

Water 

Table 5 Mourning dove field management options1

Seed crop Special dove planting Agricultural crop residue

Corn Mow, burn, disc Combine, cut silage, “hog”, mow, 

disc, or burn stalks

Peanuts Mechanical harvest, “hog”

Wheat Fresh seed and mow, burn or disc when Combine, burn residue, hay, 

mature lightly disc

Browntop, proso, Clean cultivate in rows, mow or lightly Hay, combine

and other millet disc if broadcast

Milo, higera, Clean cultivate, mow, disc Combine, hay, cut silage, shred 

sorghum or burn stalks

Sunflowers Clean cultivate, mow, lightly disc Combine

Watermelon Leave broken melons, mow, disc

Soybeans Clean cultivate, mow, lightly disc Combine, hay

Hemp Bale for rope

Sesame Clean cultivate, mow Harvest

Barley Mow, lightly disc Harvest, hay

Annual rye Mow, lightly disc Harvest, hay

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Baskett, R. K. 1993. Table 59: Mourning dove shooting field management options with special plantings or manipulation or agricultural 

crop residues. Page 498 in T. S. Baskett, M. W. Sayre, R. Tomlinson, and R. E. Mirarchi, editors. Ecology and management of the mourning dove. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA, USA.

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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

When planting seed crops for mourning dove habitat, it is important to pay attention to planting dates 

and seed maturation dates to ensure the grain crop 

will be available during the dove-hunting season. Crop 

harvesting should be done a week or two prior to the 

opening of dove season to allow time for doves to 

find and begin using the field. Most harvesting methods, including silage chopping, conventional combining, picking, hogging, and haying, all involve provisions for open or bare ground with scattered seeds 

on the surface. Light discing, hogging, or shredding 

stalks and remaining ears of corn, bean pods, peanut 

hulls, or milled heads improves the field’s potential 

for attracting doves. For seeds to be visible to mourning doves, landowners should avoid fall plowing of agricultural fields following harvest, leave some areas 

of small grains unharvested, and leave waste grain on 

the field.

Diseases and parasites

A number of known diseases and parasites affect 

mourning doves. Parasites include intestinal parasites (nematodes, flukes, tapeworms), ectoparasites (mites, lice), and blood parasites, none of 

which are linked to mortality. Haemoproteus columbae is an example of a common blood parasite; it lives within red blood cells and is transmitted by hippoboscid flies, biting midges, louse flies, 

or nest mites. Trichomonas gallinae, caused by a 

single-celled flagellate that resides in the mouth, 

esophagus, and crop, is one of the most dangerous 

pathogens in mourning doves. It can exist peacefully in the host but can also cause cheesy, yellowish growths in the mouth and esophagus, making 

it difficult for the mourning dove to eat and eventually leading to death by starvation. Avian pox is 

a virus that causes lesions on the skin and/or mucous membranes of the mouth and upper respiratory tract. These lesions can also make it difficult 

for the mourning dove to see and eat and lead to 

death by starvation. Avian pox is highly contagious 

and transmitted by mosquitoes, hippoboscid flies, 

biting midges, or by direct or indirect contact with 

an infected bird.

In brush or timbered areas, it is necessary to control 

understory vegetation so that mourning doves may 

move freely on the ground and easily locate seeds. 

Livestock grazing can be beneficial to doves by opening understory and encouraging weed seed production. However, landowners must be cautious as overgrazing may cause long-term soil deterioration and a 

loss of grass and forb seeds. Seed tree, shelterwood, 

and clearcuts are all appropriate timber harvest methods for dove management. Frequent thinning of pine 

stands stimulates the production of herbaceous plants 

valuable as dove foods. Prescribed burning in parklike stands is an inexpensive and effective technique 

for managing dove habitat, especially when used in 

association with openings, cultivated grain fields, and 

water sources. Burning of crop residues provides the 

bare ground necessary to attract doves to feeding 

fields. Doves readily feed in burned areas where desirable seeds are abundant and exposed.

Baiting laws

When preparing a feeding field, landowners 

should be aware of the laws protecting mourning doves under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 

Federal regulations concerning the baiting of migratory birds prohibit the shooting of doves over 

areas where grains, salt, or other foods are placed 

(carried to an area, not grown) for the purpose 

of attracting birds. Doves may be hunted over a 

standing crop or any field where grain or feed has 

been distributed or scattered as a result of normal agricultural operations. Standing crops may 

be manipulated by any methods to attract doves, 

such as mowing, discing, or burning, so long as 

the grain is not harvested and then redistributed to the field. It is recommended that state and/

or federal wildlife officers be consulted concerning plans for dove feeding fields and hunting. For 

more information on the laws surrounding mourning dove baiting, visit http://www.le.fws.gov/dovebaiting.htm

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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

References

Online Sources

Conservation Commission of Missouri. 2004. The 

mourning dove in Missouri. http://www.mdc.

missouri.gov/nathis/birds/doves/index.htm

[Accessed 22 November 2004].

Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife 

Resources Division. n.d. Small game management 

in Georgia. http://georgiawildlife.dnr.state.ga.us/

content/displaycontent.asp?txtDocument=228&t

xtPage=5 [Accessed 22 November 2004].

U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2002. Dovebaiting. 

http://www.le.fws.gov/dovebaiting.htm [Accessed 

15 February 2005].

Printed sources

Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural 

Resources. n.d. Management and hunting 

of mourning doves in Alabama. Wildlife and 

Freshwater Fisheries Division, Alabama 

Department of Natural Resources and 

Conservation, Montgomery, AL, USA.

Atkinson, R.D., T.S. Baskett, K.C. Sadler. 1982. 

Populations dynamics of mourning doves 

banded in Missouri. Special Scientific Report 

– Wildlife No. 250, Fish and Wildlife Service, U. S. 

Department of the Interior, Washington, DC, USA.

Baskett, T.S., M.W. Sayre, R. Tomlinson, and R.E. 

Mirarchi, editors. 1993. Ecology and management 

of the mourning dove. Stackpole Books, 

Harrisburg, PA, USA.

Dolton, D.D., and R.D. Rau. 2004. Mourning dove 

population status, 2004. U. S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, Laurel, MD. Updated yearly and available 

at http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/reports/reports.

html. 

Dunks, J.H., R.E. Tomlinson, H.M. Reeves, D.D. 

Dolton, C.E. Braun, and T.P. Zapatka. 1982. 

Mourning dove banding analysis, Central 

Management Unit, 1967-77. Special Scientific 

Report –Wildlife No. 249. U. S. Fish and Wildlife 

Service, Washington, DC, USA.

Hanson, H.C., and C.W. Kossack. 1962. The mourning 

dove in Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press, 

Carbondale, IL, USA.

Hayslette, S.E., and R.E. Mirarchi. 2001. Patterns of 

food preferences in mourning doves. Journal of 

Wildlife Management 65: 816-827.

Mirarchi, R.E., and T.S. Baskett. 1994. Mourning dove 

(Zenaida macroura). In A. Poole and F. Gill, 

editors. The Birds of North America, No. 117. The 

Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, 

USA and The American Ornithologists’ Union, 

Washington, DC, USA.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. 

n.d. Wildlife management guide: mourning dove. 

Wildlife Management Section, South Carolina 

Department of Natural Resources, Columbia, SC, 

USA.

Tomlinson, R.E., D.D. Dolton, H.M. Reeves, J.D. 

Nichols, L.A. McKibben. 1988. Migration, harvest, 

and population characteristics of mourning doves 

banded in the Western Management Unit 1964-

1977. Fish and Wildlife Technical Report 13, Fish 

and Wildlife Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 

Washington, DC, USA.

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Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Natural Resources Conservation Service Wildlife Habitat Council

8737 Colesville Road, Suite 800

Check your local telephone directory for a field Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

office near you. (301) 588-8994

The Natural Resources Conservation Service The mission of the Wildlife Habitat Council is to 

provides leadership in a partnership effort to increase the amount of quality wildlife habitat on 

help people conserve, maintain, and improve our corporate, private, and public land. WHC engages 

natural resources and environment. corporations, public agencies, and private, 

non-profit organizations on a voluntary basis for 

the recovery, development, and preservation of 

wildlife habitat worldwide.

www.nrcs.usda.gov www.wildlifehc.org

Primary author: Raissa Marks, Wildlife Habitat Council. Drafts reviewed by: Rob Pauline, Wildlife Habitat 

Council; Charlie Rewa, Natural Resources Conservation Service; Ralph E. Mirarchi, Auburn University; David 

D. Dolton, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and Steven E. Hayslette, Tennessee Tech University. 

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