Mourning DoveAs a game bird, the mourning dove, Zenaida macroura, is second in popularity in the South only to the wild turkey. Dove hunting is very popular in Mississippi. In some northern states, however, the dove is regarded as a songbird. Interest in dove hunting is strong because of the sportfulness of this erratic, fast-flying bird and because of the strong social traditions associated with the hunt. The enjoyment of dove hunting requires only casual effort on the hunter's part. A field where doves are coming in for water or feed provides the hunting opportunity. The only other requirement is enough shooters to keep the birds moving. Dove season usually opens early in September when early corn, hay, and silage crops are being harvested and winter grain is being planted. As landowners and sportsmen plant or harvest fields, tremendous numbers of doves may be attracted.
Life HistoryMourning doves are migratory birds. Their range extends to the northern states and into parts of Canada. Some doves winter in the deep south when winters are mild. The birds almost always move ahead of snow, ice, and extremely low temperatures. Many move along the Gulf Coast into Florida, the West Indies, southwest Texas, and Mexico. In late winter, the birds gradually return to their breeding territories. Sometimes heavy snowfall with ice and temperatures around zero may cause a large number of deaths when the birds cannot find food or withstand prolonged exposure to extreme cold. Doves begin pairing in early spring. The cooing calls and peculiar mating flight of the males are the first signs of breeding. Some nesting can begin as early as late February in Mississippi. Breeding increases gradually and by April is well underway. The first nesting period is mid-May to mid-June. Most nesting activity is over by late August. Production of fledglings is probably highest in July and early August in Mississippi. A nesting cycle (nest building, egg laying, and young leaving the nest) takes about 33 days. Five or six nesting attempts may produce three or four broods. Annually, an average of five or six young may be raised per pair of doves. Dove eggs are white. Usually two, but sometimes three or rarely four, complete the clutch in a nest. The nest is a shallow platform of twigs and straw and is usually on a horizontal limb. On rare occasions, nests can be found on the ground, a stump, or other flat surface. The young birds are fed by regurgitation on seeds that are partially digested in the crop and a milky glandular substance called "pigeon milk." Fledglings fly from the nest in only 11 to 14 days from hatching. Doves have light-tipped greater primary wing covert feathers until they are about 5 months old. Birds of the year (juveniles) make up about 70 percent of the hunter bag during early season hunting. Hunter bag checks to examine adult- juvenile bird ratios is a useful way to measure dove production.
MortalityDoves normally have a short life span and a high population turnover each year, as do quail, rabbits, and other small game. The first year, mortality rate on doves is about 70 percent. Banding returns suggest that legal hunter kill is about 4 or 5 percent at a minimum but may run as high as 50 to 60 percent on local juvenile doves during the early season. Trichomoniasis, a disease caused by a protozoan parasite that forms lesions and swelling in the throat, causes affected birds to starve. This disease may appear in epidemic form or in gradual, local outbreaks. Snow and ice storms may also cause severe losses. Storms destroy nests and young. Losses to predators are probably of minor importance. Hunter kill of doves apparently plays no significant part in limiting the survival and production of the total dove population. Hunter kill is regulated, and the annual harvest of doves is less than the normal population turnover and annual production.
Dove ManagementBecause the dove is a migratory bird, federal regulations protect it and control hunting. Management units have been set up in the eastern, central, and western United States to regulate dove hunting. Hunting pressure and dove numbers vary in each of these units. To establish breeding population trends, federal and state wildlife agencies conduct annual roadside call counts and counts of doves seen over established routes. Breeding population numbers, based on these call counts, are the primary basis for fixing hunting seasons and bag limits on doves. The fall population of doves in North America is estimated at about 475 million. Dove hunting is often a social affair, usually by invitation of a landowner or a group of sportsmen who have located and arranged for a dove field to shoot. Mechanical harvesting or planting of grain leaves some grain that attracts concentrations of birds. By proper timing of plantings and harvesting of crops such as hay, corn, sunflower, wheat, oats, and other grains, hunters can legally concentrate and harvest doves. Annually, however, legal methods of preparing fields or hunting over fields may change. Doves are regulated by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and these laws are enforced by federal and state officers. Brown top millet and combine milo are effective plantings for early season shoots and are economical to plant. Management of fields for dove shooting includes three points: (1) agricultural practices (2) safe control of shooting and (3) extending hunting over the largest possible time during open season. Average dove hunter success is four or five birds per hunt. Success varies according to shooting skills. Dove hunters usually expend more ammunition per piece of game than any other hunter.
By Dean Stewart, Extension Wildlife Specialist Mississippi State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status. Information
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