MOURNING DOVE FAMILY OUTSIDE MY WINDOW

For several weeks I watched as a pair of doves took turns sitting on pearly white eggs in a clumsily built nest in a hanging plant only a about a foot from the window where I spent part of each day at my computer. I can't tell which is the male and which is female. They look exactly alike. I read that the species is "generally" monogamous. These two seem devoted to each other and to their shared task. The eggs hatched a couple of weeks ago, and the two chicks (I learned that they are called squabs) are HUNGRY all the time. I also read that doves eat mostly seeds and that the young are fed crop milk. A parent bird comes back to the nest, and the one that has been sitting with the little guys flies away. Both birds seem to be able to produce the crop milk because the squabs make a fuss until the parent opens his/her mouth to let them put their beaks in to get the food. It's quite a sight. I got this picture just as they finished eating.

The birds watch Margaret and me as we come and go by their nest, which is about seven feet off the ground. They seem unafraid. We are taking care not to alarm them. We don't want the young birds to try to leave the nest too soon. I think we're going to have a continuing show at this hanging planter nest. I read that it isn't unusual for doves to raise as many as six broods every year.