Doveski

Description:

This near-adult American mourning dove, Zenaida macroura, came to my "animal rescue facility" (also known as my house) earlier this summer. He was found in the street with a clearly injured wing that he held abnormally most of the time. He was also incapable of any form of flight, but very fast at walking. I nicknamed him "Doveski" (Duvskee). I set up a temporary habitat with plenty of cover, and let him out now and then. I set up a sun-bathing area where he could also eat, drink, and swallow grit, all of which I witnessed him doing. After a few days we began flight training, as he had shown a desire to fly, but not an ability. After a week or so of building up his wing muscles and practicing direction-changing and landing, he was ready to go back in the wild. And although I say "he", there was actually no way of knowing his true sex. "He" could have been a female.A couple interesting factoids related to this photo: - Columbidae (doves and pigeons) have no gall bladders.- The reason they bob their heads when they walk is that they prefer to keep their surroundings constant in their vision. A 1978 experiment by B.J. Frost showed this when he placed doves on treadmills. They kept their heads steady because despite being in motion, their surroundings stayed the same.- Columbidae are also some of the only birds capable of drinking by suction; sucking water when they dip their beak in it, as humans can do. Most birds have to scoop water with their beak and tip their head back.- The genus Zenaida is named after Znade Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, wife of French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who named the genus.- The common name "mourning dove" comes from the mournful sound of their call. The name is not spelled "morning" dove as some people mistakenly do.- In Audobon's time the mourning dove was known as the Carolina turtle dove, or Carolina pigeon.- They are often called American mourning doves, to avoid confusion with the African mourning dove, which is not closely related.