Mourning Dove — Wings of NH

What you notice first

The sound on takeoff — a sharp, twittering whistle from the wings, not the voice — as a slim, long-tailed dove flushes off the ground or a wire.

Voice

A soft, mournful "coo-OO-oo-oo-oo," often mistaken for an owl. The wing-whistle on takeoff and landing is mechanical, made by the outer primaries.

Where & when

Open ground with scattered trees — farmland, suburbs, roadsides, under the feeder. Ground-feeders; you'll see them shuffling for spilled seed. All year, though northern birds pull south in hard winters.

The Mourning Dove nests more or less continuously from March into October — flimsy stick platforms, two eggs at a time, up to half a dozen broods in a long season. That productivity is why it stays common despite being the most-hunted game bird in North America (not in New Hampshire, which has no dove season).

Both parents feed the young “crop milk,” a protein-rich secretion sloughed from the lining of the crop, for the first days. Pigeons and doves are among the very few birds that do this.

In winter they roost together in conifers and pack the ground under feeders at first light, tails pumping, that gentle stupid-looking face doing nothing to suggest a bird that can fly 55 miles an hour.