Mourning Dove - Sounds

Sounds

This species' call is a distinctive, plaintive cooOOoo-woo-woo-woooo, uttered by males to attract a mate, and may be mistaken for the call of an owl at first. (Close up, a grating or throat-rattling sound may be heard preceding the first coo.) Other sounds include a nest call (cooOOoo) by paired males to attract their mates to the nest sites, a greeting call (a soft ork) by males upon rejoining their mates, and an alarm call (a short roo-oo) by either male or female when threatened. In flight, the wings make a fluttery whistling sound that is hard to hear. The wing whistle is much louder and more noticeable upon take-off and landing.

Read more about this topic:  Mourning Dove

Famous quotes containing the word sounds:

    A flutist who is moved to tears by his own performance will soon make the listeners laugh because of the sounds that he produces.
    Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)

    I spoke at a woman’s club in Philadelphia yesterday and a young lady said to me afterwards, “Well, that sounds very nice, but don’t you think it is better to be the power behind the throne?” I answered that I had not had much experience with thrones, but a woman who has been on a throne, and who is now behind it, seems to prefer to be on the throne.
    Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)

    O to dream, O to awake and wander
    There, and with delight to take and render,
    Through the trance of silence,
    Quiet breath;
    Lo! for there, among the flowers and grasses,
    Only the mightier movement sounds and passes;
    Only winds and rivers,
    Life and death.
    Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)