The Mourning Dove is a graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. They are certainly regular visitors to my yard and have been since spring. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; their flight is fast and bullet straight.
Mourning Doves tend to feed busily on the ground, swallowing seeds and storing them in an enlargement of the esophagus called the crop. Once they’ve filled it (the record is 17,200 bluegrass seeds in a single crop!), they can fly to a safe perch to digest the meal.
