Every week I start out with exactly the birding information you want by answering a reader's question. This week, Cheryl from Texas asks...
"Mourning doves seem to hover over the feeders, eat most of the seed and keep away the smaller birds as well as the cardinals that are here. Is there any deterrent to their presence?"
Mourning doves may seem like gentle birds, but they can be bullies. To control bully birds at the feeders, try removing feeding trays or shortening perches so they don't have a place to land, and opt for tube-style or mesh feeders that will be harder for them to get seed from. Another option is to provide them an easier meal in a nearby ground-feeding area in the hopes that smaller birds can enjoy the other feeders while the doves are occupied.
What tips do you have to control bully birds like doves, blackbirds and sparrows? Share your ideas in the comments, or submit your own question for Mailbag Monday!
Mourning Dove
Photo © Robert Taylor
Comments
The same thing happened at our feeders and we started to put down proso millet on the ground for them.This has worked great,the doves are ground feeders and proso is an inexpensive seed. Proso millet is also in the wild bird mixes.We enjoy our doves now !
I have never found my mourning doves to be a problem. They will eat peaceably in the large hopper gazebo feeder with outer species of birds. I do kee three feeders on which the doves cannot perch. The smaller birds usually eat there. I have found grackles to be a bully bird. However, morning doves will not put up with this. I once saw a grackle trying to intimidate a mourning dove. The dove beat it soundly around the head until the grackle backed off.