5. Choose a partially shaded site in a tree with plenty of open space so the doves can easily come and go. Trees in urban and suburban yards and trees at woodland edges (not woodland interiors) are good choices.
6. Place the cone shaped platform six to 10 feet up in the tree. Attach it to horizontal or vertical forked tree branches with roofing nails, wire or staples.
7. Bend down any sharp exposed edges and wires.
You can also make a platform using a sheet of roofing shingles with the black surface up. Staple cut edges together. Cut a 1 inch diameter tip off the bottom of the cone for drainage.
When it comes to nest building, mourning doves don’t always take the extra time necessary to construct a firm foundation. They’re just in too big of a hurry.
Later, doves may pay the price for a quickly built flimsy nest if a nest containing eggs or nestlings is lost due to high wind or heavy rain.
Some nests are so flimsy you can see the two white eggs from beneath the nest.
One reason Tennessee’s mourning doves are so hasty with their nest building is because pairs (thought to mate for life) attempt to nest up to six times a year. Canada Goose online With only two eggs per nest, multiple nest attempts are a strategy to produce more offspring.
Nest building isn’t the only breeding activity that mourning doves complete in a hurry. Other strategies for rapidly raising one brood right after another include small nests, reuse of old nests, young that grow unusually fast and young that leave the nest early for their size.
Parents may start a new brood before the previous one is independent.
It’s all about saving time and energy. Shorter nesting cycles free up more time and energy to raise more broods.
In Tennessee, mourning doves court and nest mainly from February into October. Males inspecting potential nest sites use nest soliciting calls and wing flicking to attract females to a chosen site. Males present small twigs to females who arrange them in the shape of a shallow bowl.
Early spring nests are often concealed in evergreen trees like red cedars or in large evergreen shrubs. Nests are re used. Deciduous trees are also used usually after the leaves come out. Occasionally doves use old robin and brown thrasher nests or build new nests on man made structures like ledges and downspouts.
Listen for the male’s three noted nest soliciting call a low coo, a high OO, a low oo. Once he attracts a female to the nest site, the pair spends seven to 10 hours over two to four mornings building a scanty nest platform. Females sometimes hurry things along by laying and incubating eggs while the nest is still under construction.
