Stats

Lifespan: 1-5 yrs
Size: Small
Diet: Herbivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Flock
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: North America
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Speed
Status: Common

About

A slender, soft-voiced dove whose mournful cooing is a familiar sound across North America. Its specially modified outer wing feathers produce the distinctive whistling-twitter heard whenever the bird bursts into flight.

Life cycle

1.
egg
A small clutch of speckled eggs is incubated in a cup nest, turned and kept warm by the parent.
2.
hatchling
A pink, blind hatchling is fed by its parents in the nest, gaping its bill at every visit.
3.
juvenile
A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to fly and to forage close to its parents.
4.
adult
Fully grown with adult plumage and song.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Zenaida
Species: Zenaida macroura