Mourning dove is an American bird with a sad, cooing call. It breeds in southeastern Alaska and from southern Canada to Mexico, and winters as far south as Panama. The bird is about 12 inches (30 centimeters) long. It flies swiftly, and its wings make a whistling sound as they move through the air.
The mourning dove places its nest, built loosely of twigs, in a tree or bush or on the ground. The female lays two white eggs. The young hatch in about two weeks and leave the nest in about two more weeks. Young birds put their beaks in the parents’ throats and feed on partly digested food mixed with a fluid called crop milk. Mourning doves eat weed seeds and insects.
