Effects of Colored Backgrounds on Food Selection by Penned Mourning Doves (Zenaidura macroura)

Abstract

MOURNING Doves (Zenaidura macroura) and other columbiform birds often react strongly to artificial color stimuli. Bennett (1939) found that a male Ringed Turtle Dove (Streptopelia risoria) removed from a pen, bleached white and returned to the pen, elicited aberrant behavior by its seven pen mates, and affected the social order of the birds. Kalmbach (1943) and Kalmbach and Welch (1946) noted that several species of birds including domestic pigeons (Columba livia) selected against grains colored bright yellow and green, when offered other choices. Frankel and Baskett (1963) found that yellow marks placed on the heads of penned female Mourning Doves disrupted poorly established pair bonds. Goforth and Baskett (1965) performed more elaborate experiments, also showing that yellow marks on the females' heads affected pair bonding adversely under certain conditions. No measurable responses by Mourning Doves to artificial color were discerned by McClure (1945) who colored eggs of incubating pairs, nor by Mackey (1965), who applied orange paint to the mandibles of one mated pair and red to those of another. Color vision in the Mourning Dove has had little study, but color vision in the closely related domestic pigeon has been investigated extensively. Results of several such studies were reviewed by Blough (1957), who indicated that the pigeon's ability to discriminate hue is similar to that of man. The purpose of the present study was to explore the influence of backgrounds that differ in color on selection of food by penned Mourning Doves. The study was an outgrowth of our earlier investigations of color marking in relation to breeding behavior, and was prompted by the seeming aversion of male doves to yellow marks placed on females' heads. It was also prompted by reports that visual cues play little or no role in food selection in Mourning Doves under field conditions (Davison, 1962; Davison and Sullivan, 1963).