Mourning Dove (Carolina Dove, American Mourning Dove)

The Mourning Dove is a slender, medium-sized dove with a graceful tail, soft grey-brown plumage, and a distinctive mournful cooing vocalization. They are well-known backyard visitors and agile fliers capable of rapid, direct flight.

Soft grayish-tan or pinkish-buff tones with a lighter, whitish-grey fringe, typical of Mourning Dove body plumage.

Mixed pennaceous upper vane with a noticeably loose, fluffy plumulaceous (downy) base structure; barbs are relatively flexible and lack rigid hooklets along the lower half.

Soft, silky, and somewhat fluffy, with a matte appearance and very little rigidity compared to flight feathers.

Soft pinkish-tan and grey coloration combined with a fluffy basal structure and slender pale rachis.

Open country, scattered trees, farm fields, roadsides, prairies, and suburban residential areas.

Widespread across North America, from southern Canada through the United States to Central America, as well as the Greater Antilles.

Important seed disperser and a primary food source for many raptor and avian predator species.

Eurasian Collared-Dove or White-winged Dove, distinguished by paler or more contrasting coloration and larger size.

Mourning doves produce 'crop milk', a nutritious secretion from the lining of the parent's crop used to feed their altricial nestlings.

Good condition with intact barbs and minimal fraying at the edges.