Doves and Pigeons
Two Mourning Doves waiting out a snowstorm
Birds generally find as much shelter as they can and conserve energy during extreme weather.
Two Mourning Doves waiting out a snowstorm
Birds generally find as much shelter as they can and conserve energy during extreme weather.
■ Many birds bob their heads back and forth as they walk, and they do it to help keep their vision fixed on their surroundings. Head bobbing is synchronized with foot movements. As one foot is picked up and moved forward, the head snaps forward and then remains nearly stationary while the body moves forward below it. As the trailing foot is picked up off the ground the head snaps forward again, and the cycle repeats. The head-bobbing motion is stimulated visually, and in experiments where pigeons walk on a treadmill or are blindfolded (so that the view does not change), they do not bob their heads.
A Rock Pigeon walking: the head remains stationary while the body moves forward
■ Can birds really sleep with one eye open? Yes. Bird sleep is quite different from ours, and they can put half of their brain to sleep while continuing activity with the other half. We could say this dove is “half asleep,” but research shows that it is really about three-quarters asleep. The side of the brain with the eye open is really in an intermediate state, resting while still monitoring the surroundings. Birds resting at the edge of a flock will often keep their “outward” eye open to watch for danger.
Mourning Dove partly asleep
■ Why do the wings of Mourning Doves make a whistling sound on takeoff? Researchers tested the reactions of doves and other birds to recordings of Mourning Doves taking off, and found that the sound of a normal relaxed takeoff caused no reaction, but the sound of a panicked takeoff (higher pitched and with quicker wing beats) caused doves and other birds to flee in alarm. Clearly the wing whistle of doves is a valuable signal alerting other doves to potential danger, and can be learned by unrelated species just like the high-pitched alarm calls of many songbirds. Wing sounds are also used in the dove’s courtship displays, so it’s possible that the sound evolved mainly for that purpose, with the alarm function being a nice extra benefit.
Mourning Dove taking off