Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura

Adult femaleThis afternoon I tried again to get photos of the House Finches coming to the feeder (which I did - I'll post separately) when a family of Mourning Doves came to visit. I say family as there was an adult male and female and a juvenile bird but the parents looked like they were telling junior it was time to move out!

I have attached photos of all three to illustrate the differences between the sexes. The male's most obvious feature is the blueish cap vs the female's brown cap. The male also has a pinker breast but in certain light the irridesence of the female's feathers can make that hard to determine. The juvenile bird is a dull brown with scalloping on the head (see images below).

The Mourning Doves come to my feeders all year round and are always welcome. Usually they land and feed on the ground although I have seen them landing on all of the feeders except the Nyjer feeder. However when they do land on the feeders, they usually don't stay long before dropping to the ground. This female (large picture) landed in the perfect spot for me to take her picture this afternoon.

Juvenile
Adult Male