Some cool photos of animals images:
Doveski
Image by Furryscaly
This near-adult American mourning dove, Zenaida macroura, came to my "animal rescue facility" (also known as my house) earlier this summer. He was found in the street in Burleigh County, North Dakota, with a clearly injured wing that he held abnormally most of the time. He was also incapable of any form of flight, but very fast at walking. I nicknamed him "Doveski" (Duv·skee).
I set up a temporary habitat with plenty of cover, and let him out now and then. I set up a sun-bathing area where he could also eat, drink, and swallow grit, all of which I witnessed him doing. After a few days we began flight training, as he had shown a desire to fly, but not an ability. After a week or so of building up his wing muscles and practicing direction-changing and landing, he was ready to go back in the wild. And although I say "he", there was actually no way of knowing his true sex. "He" could have been a female.
A couple interesting factoids related to this photo:
- Columbidae (doves and pigeons) have no gall bladders.
- The reason they bob their heads when they walk is that they prefer to keep their surroundings constant in their vision. A 1978 experiment by B.J. Frost showed this when he placed doves on treadmills. They kept their heads steady because despite being in motion, their surroundings stayed the same.
- Columbidae are also some of the only birds capable of drinking by suction; sucking water when they dip their beak in it, as humans can do. Most birds have to scoop water with their beak and tip their head back.
- The genus Zenaida is named after Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, wife of French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who named the genus.
- The common name "mourning dove" comes from the mournful sound of their call. The name is not spelled "morning" dove as some people mistakenly do.
- In Audobon's time the mourning dove was known as the Carolina turtle dove, or Carolina pigeon.
- They are often called American mourning doves, to avoid confusion with the African mourning dove, which is not closely related.
