Collared Doves

Hi,

I have a Mahonia Bushoutside my dining room window and I had a pair of collard doves nesting in it.

I tried to get some photo's but I could not get a decent angle to see them properly and I did not want to disturb them. Only one of the chicks survived but it was great to see the progress from egg to fledging.

Graham 

I've only seen one collared dove in my garden, although there are others who seem to nest nearby.  I have woddies who visit regularly, and until one of my neighbours chopped 10 feet off the top of their trees I'm sure they were nesting there.  The woodies tend to keep themselves to themselves and allow the dunnocks to scamper around them.  So far, no feral pigeons (luckily) but had a fright today.  Looked like a hybrid between a woody and a feral pigeon, smaller than a woody, and no white neck band but didn't look altogether like a feral pigeon.  May have been a rock dove, mind you.

No photos, as my camera is a) cr*p and b) needing batteries

Hi Kesmo!  Lovely shot of your backyard.  I, too, sometimes take photos through the window.  A little tip you may not have tried yet is to hold the camera with the lens against a clean part of the window glass to take your shots.  It avoids getting reflections in you photo, as well as avoiding any dirty spots! 

Hi Kezmo

Thank you for sharing your pictures with everyone

My goodness you have a flock of Collared Doves all of your own.  What are you feeding them.

I am impressed!  Well it is something good to add to the bird count anyday

Squirrel: I have added comments to your pictures - love them a lot and the personal names that they have too.

Great replies everyone and very interesting to read.- cannot answer everyone {wink}

Regards

Kathy and Dave

Hi Blackbird

I feed my birds basically all the same food, they don't tend to be too fussy and thankfully as you can buy it in bulk it's so much cheaper.  I usually buy from Haiths.  I just bulk out wth more speciality food and live food during the breeding months but the main food is just the usual seed mix.  Funnily enough tho when I did feed them husk free food for a while, I had more left over at the end of the day.

I have my regular two Doves, who come into my garden they also nest in the bushes, they have their favourite spot where they sit, coming down to hoover up the food from the ground under the bird table, I find their cooing quite soothing. 

Unknown said:

Hi Blackbird

If you would like some more collard doves then you can come to my garden - we have so many!  I don't know why we are so honoured but some days I have counted up to 40 in our garden (honest!), although there are only 2 who stay all day whilst the rest will fly off as soon as the food has gone. 

I have attached a photo for you to see, there are also other varieties but it's hard to see, I think possibly some ferile pigions and wood pigeons.

Ironically when I do the birdy watch not one of these babies show up when they're supposed to !!!

Hi Kezmo... that is a quite incredible number of collared doves - I have never seen that many at one time anywhere. How lovely. As Soosin (I think it was) said, they are so genteel. Very much the aristocrats of the bird world. Lucky you!

Squirrel

Re 'townie' pigeons - the males always seem to be pouting and showing off in front of the females even well past the mating season - the females seem to do the pigeon equivalent of rolling their eyes and ignoring them!

Cartimandua said:

Re 'townie' pigeons - the males always seem to be pouting and showing off in front of the females even well past the mating season - the females seem to do the pigeon equivalent of rolling their eyes and ignoring them!

I think most pigeons will continue to breed all year round if the conditions are right! ;-)