Zenaida macroura

The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is a member of the dove family, Columbidae. The bird is also known as the American mourning dove or the rain dove, and erroneously as the turtle dove, and was once known as the Carolina pigeon or Carolina turtledove. It is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds. It is also a leading gamebird, with more than 20 million birds (up to 70 million in some years) shot annually in the U.S., both for sport and for meat. Its ability to sustain its population under such pressure is due to its prolific breeding; in warm areas, one pair may raise up to six broods of two young each in a single year. The wings make an unusual whistling sound upon take-off and landing, a form of sonation. The bird is a strong flier, capable of speeds up to 88 km/h (55 mph). It is the national bird of the British Virgin Islands. Mourning doves are light grey and brown and generally muted in color. Males and females are similar in appearance. The species is generally monogamous, with two squabs (young) per brood. Both parents incubate and care for the young. Mourning doves eat almost exclusively seeds, but the young are fed crop milk by their parents. The mourning dove is closely related to the eared dove (Zenaida auriculata) and the Socorro dove (Zenaida graysoni). Some authorities describe them as forming a superspecies and these three birds are sometimes classified in the separate genus Zenaidura, but the current classification has them as separate species in the genus Zenaida. In addition, the Socorro dove has at times been considered conspecific with the mourning dove, although several differences in behavior, call, and appearance justify separation as two different species. While the three species do form a subgroup of Zenaida, using a separate genus would interfere with the monophyly of Zenaida by making it paraphyletic. There are five subspecies of mourning dove: The ranges of most of the subspecies overlap a little, with three in the United States or Canada. The West Indian subspecies is found throughout the Greater Antilles. It has recently invaded the Florida Keys. The eastern subspecies is found mainly in eastern North America, as well as Bermuda and the Bahamas. The western subspecies is found in western North America, including parts of Mexico. The Panamanian subspecies is located in Central America. The Clarion Island subspecies is found only on Clarion Island, just off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The mourning dove is sometimes called the 'American mourning dove' to distinguish it from the distantly related mourning collared dove (Streptopelia decipiens) of Africa. It was also formerly known as the 'Carolina turtledove' and the 'Carolina pigeon'. The genus name was bestowed in 1838 by French zoologist Charles L. Bonaparte in honor of his wife, Princess Zénaide, and macroura is from Ancient Greek makros, 'long' and oura, 'tail'. The 'mourning' part of its common name comes from its call. The mourning dove was thought to be the passenger pigeon's closest living relative based on morphological grounds until genetic analysis showed Patagioenas pigeons to be more closely related. The mourning dove was even suggested to belong to the same genus, Ectopistes, and was listed by some authors as E. carolinensis. The mourning dove has a large range of nearly 11,000,000 km2 (4,200,000 sq mi). The species is resident throughout the Greater Antilles, most of Mexico, the Continental United States, southern Canada, and the Atlantic archipelago of Bermuda. Much of the Canadian prairie sees these birds in summer only, and southern Central America sees them in winter only. The species is a vagrant in northern Canada, Alaska, and South America. It has been spotted as an accidental at least seven times in the Western Palearctic with records from the British Isles (5), the Azores (1) and Iceland (1). In 1963, the mourning dove was introduced to Hawaii, and in 1998 there was still a small population in North Kona. The mourning dove also appeared on Socorro Island, off the western coast of Mexico, in 1988, sixteen years after the Socorro dove was extirpated from that island.