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1A Hunting in Texas Guide Service |
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Fast Facts About Texas Doves . . .....There are twelve subspecies of whitewing dove. Texas has four of them. The scientific name of mourning dove is Zenaida macroura. The genus name, Zenaida, is named for Zenaide, the wife of Charles Bonaparte, who was a .....French ornithologist that lived and worked in the early 1800s. The species name, macroura, .....is from the Greek, makros (long) and -ouros (tailed), referring to the mourner's long tail. Mourning dove get their common name from the mournful calls they make. .....It's 5 notes resembling "who LOVES you, who, who, who" emphasizing "LOVES" Whitewing calls sound like "who cooks for YOU", emphasizing "YOU". Whitewing dove begin breeding in Texas as early as February, but most commonly in April. Whitewing normally stop breeding activity by mid August. Mourning dove begin breeding in Texas as early as January, but most commonly in April. Mourners normally stop breeding activity by mid August as well, but may fledge young as ......late as October in South Texas. Whitewing and mourning dove usually lay two eggs per nesting attempt. Male and female dove will both sit the nest. Males normally sit the nest in the middle of the day. .....Females normally sit the nest the rest of the time. Dove eggs hatch in just 14 to 15 days. All doves feed the young "pigeon milk" for about a week after they hatch. Pigeon milk is made in the bird's craw from water, partly digested seeds and the sloughed off lining. Both male and female doves make the milk, similar to, but richer than mammal milk. Baby doves (squab) can leave the nest just 13 to 15 days after hatching. Female dove often renest within 3 days of fledging the young, or losing a nest. Male doves take care of the newly fledged young while the female sits the next brood. Mature pairs of either species may attempt to nest up to 6 times a year. Occasionally, young from the first or second nest of the year may breed in that same year. .....Sexual maturity may occur as early as 85 days old. You can tell young mourners from adult mourning dove by the buff colored edging on the .....wing feathers. They lose the last of these feathers just after 3 months of age. The average young raised per mature breeding pair of dove per year is about 5. Nest predation is very high. Grackles, crows, snakes and feral cats top the predator list. Whitewing tend to nest in colonies. Mourning dove tend to nest in isolated pairs. Whitewing population in Texas peaked at nearly 12 million in 1923. Whitewing populations ebbed at about 500,000 in 1939. .....The destruction of 90% of its critical nesting habitat through intensive agricultural .....farming and heavy hunting in the 1920's and 1930's contributed to this decline. Whitewing populations are growing again, with about a million just in Bexar County, and as .....many as 7 million statewide. In 1923, 90% of Texas whitewing lived in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Now, over 60% .....live in Upper South Texas, and some colonies live as far north as Denton. A small colony even lives in Oklahoma City, OK. Texas may play host to as many as 18 million resident and migrating mourners each year. The average lifespan of a dove is only about 1.5 years, but there are many band recoveries .....from birds over 10 years old. The oldest whitewing recorded was over 21 years old. .....The oldest mouring dove recorded was over 31 years old. Hunters only harvest about 15% of the total dove population in the U.S. each year, but as much .....as 70% of the bag may consist of young of the year. Over 95% of a dove's diet consists of small seeds. Over 14,200 grass seeds were counted in a single dove's crop during one scientific study. That's a lot of head bobbing! Learn Even More About Texas Doves Click the hyperlinks below to go directly to the subject that interests you most. . Determining the sex of a dove? What Species are Legal for Dove Hunting in Texas? Current Texas season/bag limits for dove? What is a baited area? . |
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