Does anyone know about the nesting habits of these birds? The robins have hatched and moved on from the nest in the red honeysuckle bush beside our deck. Now there are 2 white eggs laid by a mourning dove (I believe). However, the parent birds are not setting on them. I’ve been wondering why. I thought mourning doves were supposed to be good parents.?
Look at www.wild-bird-watching.com/Doves.html
That might give you some insight into them. We have them around our house, too - and they pick the weirdest places to put their nests!!!
I checked a lot of sites about dove information and didn’t see any that said anything about them abandoning eggs - only that they were good parents. Not sure if the wild bird watching site was one the places I visited. Will check it out. At first DH and I thought they were cowbird eggs, but cowbird eggs are speckled. These eggs are plain white.
Sad as it is, that site did say that if they felt threatened, they would abandon the nest, and any eggs or fledglings that might be in it.
The nests we’ve had the parents always stayed on the eggs. If they had to leave it was only for a minute or two if they got scared, but DH even watered the fern where the nest was and they didn’t move. I suspect it’s been abandoned if it’s been very long.
I think that is probably what happened. The bush is right beside the stairs from the deck to the yard below. The robin that built the nest originally would fly off the nest if we leaned over and looked too close, but she always returned until the chicks hatched.
The eggs are now gone. We had very strong winds the night before last so I guess they were blown to the ground somewhere or a predator finally got them. I just hope it wasn’t a snake so close to the house.
BTW, I visited the site you suggested and that is the only one that gave that bit of information. Thanks for the link. I haven’t seen any mention of doves using the nests of other birds…just how flimsy their nests usually are.