Mourning Dove Production in a Kansas Osage Orange Planting

Abstract

A mourning dove (Zenaidura macroura) production study was conducted during the 1962 nesting season in an osage orange (Maclura pomifera) planting in Ellis County, Kansas. Altogether 389 nests built by an estimated 92 pairs of doves were followed to termination between May 2 and September 11. Of these, 166 nests (43 percent) were lost to predators, storms, or abandonment. Two hundred and forty-two (32 percent) of the 766 eggs laid and 114 (22 percent) of 524 nestling doves were lost during the nesting season. Four hundred and ten nestlings were fledged, averaging 4.5 young per pair. The greatest number of active nests found at any one time was 92, a density of 17.3/acre. The fall dove hunting season resulted in the cessation of nesting activity. Doves were still in the process of nest building and incubation when the season began, but no new nests were started after this time and many active nests were deserted. In the spring of 1961, I found a high density of mourning doves nesting in a 10- acre planting of osage orange trees estab- lished under the timber culture act of 1873, 5 miles north and 2 mile west of Hays, Ellis County, Kansas. AREA DESCRIPTION