Mourning Dove

LOL, a really, really bad photo of this Mourning Dove, but wanted to add it to my Birds of Alberta Set because I don't yet have a photo in there of this species. After a three-hour walk at Beaverdam Flats yesterday morning, we called in at someone's garden to catch a glimpse of two of these Doves, sitting fairly close together on a branch deep within a huge Spruce tree. There was no way to get a better shot : ) These birds are uncommon to common in Alberta from April to October, so we were lucky to see some overwintering.

"A graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; their flight is fast and bullet straight. Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying. Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America." From
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/id .