Mourning Dove Nest in California
Text and Photos by Hana Lang, Saratoga, California
We live on a residential street in
Saratoga, California. On our back porch, in a corner of the porch
within a few feet of 2 windows to our house, on the dirt of a potted
lime tree plant, two mourning doves began constructing a nest on April
6. This process was completed by two days later.

On
April 8 we noticed a white egg in the nest. The two birds were taking
turns sitting on the egg.
On April 11th we noticed that two eggs were
now present.

One or the other parent
was on the eggs at all times. We learned to tell the two birds apart
because one has a slimmer body, and one bird is rounder and larger
overall.
On the morning of Sunday April 26 we had a great surprise ! The eggs were gone, and in their place we saw two teeny tiny newly hatched birds. One or the other parent has been sitting on the birds since then. We are avoiding playing out in the backyard to minimize disturbance to the birds.
The two newborns emerged for a photo session
next to their parent briefly at noon today. We look forward to
watching our newly hatched doves turn into fledglings. This is a new
experience for us, and has granted us a greater appreciation of birds
and how they care for their babies.

On the morning of Sunday April 26 we had a great surprise ! The eggs were gone, and in their place we saw two teeny tiny newly hatched birds. One or the other parent has been sitting on the birds since then. We are avoiding playing out in the backyard to minimize disturbance to the birds.






