Patty

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...0&y=6g55ys

Any idea what species these nestlings are? They're about 3 inches long from head to tail. The last pic is what I believe are the remaining feathers of one of the parents. Could it be a dove? I'm wondering if the other parent (if it's a species raised by both and assuming it's alive) will return. I'm in a suburb of LA not far from an infamous ex-Fodorite if that helps

Thanks!

aby

Hi Patty

i have never been to LA or to the "lower 48" (been to Alsaka & Hawaii only... & yeah, a day in Miami on the way to Cuba & Jamaica)

Anyhow, it does look like a Dove. i wish you could take the pictures of the beaks in profile...
The long feather can give us a hint that it <u>may</u> be a Dove:
The field recognition of a Dove vs. a Pigeon, is that Doves have a white outer margin in the tails' feathers. Mind you the problem is that {you Americans ;-)} use the name 'dove' sometimes wrongly : e.g. u call the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia) by the wrong name &quot;rock Dove&quot; &amp; the english name 'dove' covers more than the one Genus it was meant for - Streptopelia)

I must say it with caution, but it may be Mourning Dove the other (U&gt;less likely option is an introduced species of Dove
like the Asian introduced species of Spotted Dove (on second thought less likely as i think the tail has some more prominent black)
I'm not sure if LA has the Ring Turtle-Dove or the Collared Dove found in some cities
If it is, as it seems, a tail feather (wish i could examine it better) seems to fit the Mourning dove...

hope some locals will come with better knowledge than mine

aby

PS sorry if it became a too long &amp; tiring message

divewop

I think the feathers resemble those of a pigeon/dove too. There are a pair of hawks on my street and whenever I see feathers of those sort laying in my backyard, I know one of the hawks has made a 'kill' and it's usually of one of the many pigeons who reside in the neighborhood (and my backyard.)

Patty

Thanks, aby! I don't even know the difference between doves and pigeons!

Are doves/pigeons raised by a pair or single parent? I'm trying figure out the likelihood of the other parent returning.

Unfortunately, one of the babies has already died

divewop

Patty-
From what I understand, both parents take part in raising them. They both produce and feed the babies a type of pigeon milk.

I don't know what happens when one of the parents die and the other is left to raise the babies, if it will continue to raise them by itself or if it will even come back, especially if the nest has been disturbed.

Hopefully PB will weigh in on the subject.

PredatorBiologist

Patty: both parents are involved in the care so hopefully the remaining parent will return. I'm not sure how the impact of losing a mate will influence the care though. In a nice climate like you have doves will have a number of broods in a year so the survivor could decide the best way to pass genes is to find a new mate instead of double feeding in an effort to salvage one chick. Keep an eye out though and hopefully it will return.

I think Aby was exactly right on this one. Based on the tail feather and the beaks of the young they are almost certainly doves. Most likely mourning doves althogh they could be the Asian import spotted dove too, or possibly even a different type of dove but I would bet on mourning dove.

Do you know what happened to the deceased -- cat perhaps?

321go

Patty, I showed your pics to a wildlife biologist friend of mine who specializes in birds. She says if she had to guess, she'd go with mourning doves. Here in Florida the parents trade-off shifts taking care of the nestlings and their nests tend to be very rickety looking affairs. Is there a wildlife hospital anywhere near you? They may be able to give you more info specific to your area.

PredatorBiologist

Divewop: pretty soon you are going to have to watch out for more than hawks:-0

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slidesho...jyov0&amp;Ux=1

Patty

Thanks everybody! I uploaded another pic with the beak if that helps.

I suspect the culprit was a cat and it happened sometime during the night. I found the 2 babies on the sidewalk in front of my house this morning. There was a trail of feathers culminating in that tail feather in the middle of the street. The nest had fallen in water (yes, it did look kind of rickety), so I made a makeshift one out of a basket and hay and secured it to the tree and am hoping for the best.

To compound matters, this morning they did the annual tree trimming in our neighborhood so the tree no longer looks like it did yesterday and the cover/shade that was there is gone. It's also pretty hot here (mid-90's right now) and I wonder if it will become completely dehydrated. Everything seems to be working against it

So far I haven't observed any feeding but I haven't been able to monitor it constantly either. I've emailed the 2 rehabbers that helped me with the squirrel last year and left a message with a wild bird rescue organization and am waiting to hear back.

Patty

I uploaded another pic of an adult bird that I saw perched on the same tree. It's taken through a dirty window so pretty fuzzy. I haven't seen it by the nest though. I'm stepping out for a few hours, so set up a video camera inside the house and will review it when I get back.

Momliz

that adult definitely looks like a mourning dove.

matnikstym

looks like the same kind of dove that eats out of my cat food bowl.
Wash your windows!

divewop

Nice pics PB. I'm really looking forward to playing in and taking photos in your (and my new) playground, so to speak!

Patty

No nest visits during the hour that I taped. Not promising, is it?

The neighbors are probably wondering what we're doing with the binoculars and video camera.

Dennis, I'm too busy obsessing about Africa to worry about mundane things like washing my windows

napamatt

Adult bird is a Mourning Dove.

Patty

A trip down memory lane on another forum reminded that I never posted about what happened to the surviving nestling aka Crusty. I think I was worried that he (I don’t actually know if it’s a he or she) would die any day on us and it would be too sad to write anything.

To continue where I left off in 2007, we decided to bring the makeshift nest inside that evening. No one returned my emails or calls, so I went online for a crash course on mourning doves. We got some bird formula (did you know you could buy bird formula?) and started feeding him initially with a bottle nipple and as he got bigger a large straw, gradually adding seed to the formula as we weaned him. It took some trial and error and feedings were always a messy affair hence the name Crusty.

I kept a daily diary of his weight and what he ate and did everyday but I missed his first flight because I was attending my cousin’s wedding in Seattle. During the day we kept him in the home office so we could keep an eye on him (he once got stuck behind a filing cabinet and couldn’t get himself out) and the poop confined to one room. I recall reading a thread on the lounge about someone going to a friend’s house for dinner and being horrified that the friend’s cat was allowed on the kitchen counter. I kept thinking they don't know how truly horrifying it can get!

At night we’d put him in a cage which he hated and protested but after the lights were turned off, he’d quiet down. He liked riding around on Mark’s shoulder and napping on his chest when we watched TV. Tex , our shihtzu, tried to grab him one time and Crusty learned to stay just far enough away from the dogs, a good lesson, I think.

Once he got pretty adept at flying we started taking him outside, first supervised, then by himself. We never saw him go farther than the neighbor’s house and were starting to think he’d never leave. But eventually he did fly away and never came back. We left food and water out for a week but it seemed undisturbed. For all I know he didn’t survive past that evening but a couple of weeks later as we were walking our dogs, we noticed a flock of mourning doves on the sidewalk. As we got closer, they flew away except one bird that stayed and watched us approach. We decided to cross the street and it stepped off the sidewalk and started walking across too until a car came by (don’t worry, it didn’t get squashed ) and it flew onto a tree on our side of the street. We kept walking and it flew to another closer tree. After that, it didn’t follow us. I’d like to think it was Crusty.

I uploaded a few more pics from the time we had him to the original album. I still miss him today and my windows are still just as dirty!

And hey the search function works!

PredatorBiologist

Awesome update to the story Patty. You two did a great job of rearing the chick and your ending definitely sounds like Crusty was making the transition to the wild. Very cool!

Nyamera

Thanks for the update!

cw

What a terrific story--thanks for the update. I like to think too that it was your mourning dove that followed you across the street--Crusty, what a great name!

Patty

Thanks guys!