Along with flowers, fallen of many nations are honored each year by releasing flocks of birds on respective days of remembrance. The PIAS, therefore, honors as its Bird of the Month, the dove, the one universally accepted creature that’s the symbol of Christian peace and understanding, and in the Judaic culture’s “Song of Solomon,” the object heralding the coming of spring and the beginning of new life.

Doves, of which pigeons are a member, belong to the order Columformes, with most falling into the family Columbidae. Of these, Americans are familiar with the rock pigeon and the mourning dove, the latter having two close relatives, the turtle and the collared doves of the Old World.

Pigeons and doves differ in size and bodily configurations, the former being larger and heavier, while growing to 13 ½ inches. They also possess, with the exception of the all-white variety, a black stripe across their blunt tail feathers. Doves do not exceed 10 ½ inches in length, their bodies are slim and streamlined and their longer tails taper almost to a point. Both pigeons and doves vary in color, the mourning dove, however, being one of the dullest in hue. It has a dark brown upper body with black spots on its back and black wing tips. The bird makes up for its drab coloration with its most beautiful call of four sad, melodic notes that differ from the pigeon’s almost owl-like hoots.

Like the others in its species, the mourning dove builds its nest of twigs and lines it with grass. The male provides the material while the female does the actual construction. Both sexes take turns brooding the usual clutch of two eggs but the male sits for only one third of the time, during the hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The female handles the rest of the 24-hour period.

Each hunts for food which is regurgitated in the form of “pigeon’s milk” to the young which hatch after about 14 days. Hatchlings live on this rich, cheesy-like protein for about 18 days until they adapt to a seed diet. Mature doves do not catch insects and feed them to their young as do many other species of songbirds. Doves mate frequently and bring in a new clutch as often as three times a year. They, like waterfowl, are also migratory but many are lost during this period because the lack of fat in their systems weakens them on long treks.

Some species have become pests, flocks devastating fields of newly sewn seeds and damaging other crops. Fortunately, their numbers are kept in check by nest robbers, jays and magpies which destroy more than sixty percent of the eggs and hatchlings and by hawks that hunt the adults. Doves throughout the world are edible, but hunters manage only to reduce their population by a mere three percent of the total.

Many fables and myths abound about doves, but one in particular stands out. A Greek legend tells of a servant girl employed by a miserly old woman who paid the maiden a sparse 18 coins a year. The girl prayed to Zeus asking the God to somehow tell the world of her mistress’ cruelty and penuriousness. Zeus felt sorry for the servant girl and created the collared or striped species of bird from the turtle dove. This new dove’s call, to some believers, sounds like the expression “deco-octo” (ten and eight). Though few find its actual call is similar to that sound, the Greek story gives the collared or striped species its scientific name Striptopelia decaocto.

With the doves signifying remembrance of the fallen in all our wars on this Memorial Day, the Pelican Island Audubon Society concludes its Bird of the Month series for 2004-2005.

Material Source:

Funk and Wagnall Wildlife Encyclopedia

Mobile Bay Monthly Magazine, “Remembering Our Dead,” by Robert Windish, May 1988.

Bird of North America by Robbins, Brunn and Zimm

Hunting the Gray Ghosts by Ross Parsons – Florida Wildlife Magazine – Sept. 1975

A Guide to the Most Familiar Birds by Zim and Gabrielson – James Gordon, Illstrations