Some Aspects of the Population Ecology of Breeding Mourning Doves in Georgia

Abstract

Breeding density of mourning doves in 1950 and 1951 on 10 100-acre study areas varied from 1 to 9 and avgd. 3.3 pairs per acre as detd. by the spot-mapping method. Doves exibited a moderate colony-nesting tendency in Georgia favoring peninsula-type forest-edge habitat. Production of fledged young avgd. 2.1 per pair. This low natality resulted from the small number of nesting attempts rather than from high nesting mortality. Food, high mid-summer temperatures and disease are possible limiting factors. It is suggested that natality may prove to be density-dependent in this species, with the optimum at a moderately high rather than a low density.