What is December without songs about turtle doves and French hens? French hens are simply chickens. Forty chicken breeds originated in France, and most were very desirable eating in the 1700s when the famous “Twelve Days of Christmas” with French hens was first printed. Presenting a true love with three French hens was a much more enchanting gift than giving, say, a rotisserie chicken today.
But what the heck are turtle doves?
It turns out that European turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur) are not found in North America. (And turtle doves have nothing to do with turtles, by the way. They make a turr–turring sound, from whence the name derives.) Turtle doves are native to Europe and Asia and were widespread in the 1700s. Today they are, unfortunately, the United Kingdom’s fastest-declining bird species. Since 1970, turtle doves in the UK have decreased by 93 percent, and there are only about 2,000 breeding pairs left. Seventeen dove and pigeon species have already become extinct (including the passenger pigeon and the dodo bird). Is the turtle dove far behind?
Not if the European Commission has its way. In 2021, the commission banned turtle dove hunting in France, Spain and Portugal. By the summer of 2024, there was a 25 percent increase in Western European breeding turtle dove populations. (The bird is still heavily hunted in the Eastern Mediterranean where hunters in Malta, Cyprus, Italy and Greece kill 2 million to 4 million birds annually.) But the turtle dove’s prospects are looking better than they were even a few years ago.
In North America, we have a bird resembling the turtle dove. In fact, it used to be called the Carolina turtle dove, but today we simply call it the mourning dove (Zenaida macroura). Like the turtle dove, its name is derived from the sound it makes – in this case, a mournful cooing. According to the Rev. William Peabody in 1840, “The sound seems expressive of deep affliction, but the bird that makes it is very happy.”
According to Arthur Cleveland Bent, “The mourning dove must have been one of the first birds that attracted the attention of the early settlers when this country was new and wild … The writers of these times speak of the bird familiarly, especially as a game bird that relieved the hardships of pioneer life.”
Mourning doves are abundant and widespread in North America today. Although they look like a small version of a passenger pigeon, mourning doves managed to elude hunters enough in the 1800s that they prosper today. (Unlike the poor passenger pigeon. A boy in Ohio spotted and killed the last wild passenger pigeon in 1900). In fact, there are 350 million mourning doves in the United States, despite the fact that hunters shoot up to 70 million per year. (These birds are protected in Massachusetts, though.)
Unlike most other birds, mourning doves can breed year-round. They do not feed their young seasonal insects like caterpillars or worms. Instead, they feed their young crop milk, a fat- and protein-rich substance that males and females make in their throat pouch. Young birds eat this milk directly from the throat pouch. Each parent produces enough milk for one bird. Therefore, female mourning doves lay only two eggs at a time. As the young birds grow, more and more seeds are mixed in with the crop milk. By the time the youngsters are two weeks old, they are eating the same diet as the adults (but softened in the crop).
Mourning doves are attentive parents, and one parent is always at the nest. Young mourning doves grow quickly and leave the nest in only two weeks. After they leave, the father helps feed the young for up to two more weeks. The female is occupied building another nest and preparing for a second brood. In Massachusetts, mourning doves lay eggs from March until August, but the peak laying period is May and June.
Adult mourning doves eat seeds. According to Bent, the ornithologist:
The examination of the contents of 237 stomachs of the dove shows over 99 percent of its food consists wholly of vegetable matter in the shape of seeds, less than 1 percent being animal food … In one stomach we found 7,500 seeds of the yellow wood-sorrel (Oxalis stricta), in another, 6,400 seeds of barn grass or fox tail (Chaetocioa) … The birds resort to the pine woods for weeks at a time to feed upon the seeds of these trees, which they obtain by walking out on the limbs and extracting them from the cones. The flesh at this time is very strongly impregnated with a piney flavor.
Mourning doves prefer some types of seeds more than others. They especially like pine nuts, sunflower seeds and pokeweed seeds, for example.
In September, young mourning doves begin migrating to more southern states where they will overwinter. By December, all of the doves that intend to migrate have done so. More and more mourning doves, usually males, overwinter in our region. This gives them a head start in finding a suitable territory in the spring. If a winter is severe, however, many of these overwintering birds die. Birds that have wintered in the south return in February or March at the first sign of spring. The males, who have been quiet all winter, begin to coo – perhaps just in time to attract a female on Valentine’s day.
Have you taken photos of our urban wild things? Send your images to Cambridge Day, and we may use them as part of a future feature. Include the photographer’s name and the general location where the photo was taken.
Jeanine Farley is an educational writer who has lived in the Boston area for more than 30 years. She enjoys taking photos of our urban wild things.
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