Tuesday 25 June 2013

Collared Doves

Last winter we had a pair of Collared Doves regularly feeding underneath the bird table.


A few days ago we noticed they had built their nest in the Christmas tree adjacent to the bird table and within a couple metres of our rear terrace.

Interestingly in the Wikipedia page on collared doves it makes note that they always nest close to human habitation. It also says that the male incubates during the day and the female at night and last night I was lucky enough to see a changeover. The female bird arrived with a coo coo coo and perched adjacent, the male left and she took over. Great to see.

We think they have been incubating for about a week so a few more days to go before we hopefully see the chicks. You have to give them credit as the nest is towards the top of the tree and they have sat there through all the wind and rain of the past few days.

We hope they are successful...

Tim; Do you think we should put some bird food out for them?

2 comments:

Tim said...

No real need at this time of the year... and it could cause problems with other seed eaters... they won't be expecting alternative sources.

Tim said...

Tim's mum called them "gussies", so now we call them that too. Better them than woodpigeons - we have both! Pauline