Mourning Dove miscellany

Photos by BarrytheBirder

When they sleep, Mourning Doves rest their heads between their shoulders, close to the body (see photos above).   They do not tuck their small heads under their shoulder feathers, as many other birds do.   Mourning Doves are considered to be closely related to the extinct Passenger Pigeon whose numbers went from between three and five billion in the 1600s to extinction in 1914; mostly to hunting by humans. Although hunters in the United States take anywhere from 20 to 70 million doves a year, the species is not in decline or threatened in North America. 

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BtheB