Morning, Dove

Ah yes, good morning, indeed. During my San Jose morning walks, I came across quite a number of these doves.

Zenaida macroura, the Mourning Dove, is also known as the Turtle Dove, the Rain Dove, the Carolina Pigeon, and the Carolina Turtle Dove. It's quite ubiquitous, and in fact, is the most common bird in North America.

It's called "mourning" because of its doleful, plaintive cooing.

However, it has another reason to be mournful. See, it's the number one gamebird in North America, with upwards of 20 million shot each year for sport or food (I heard sometimes the total can reach as high as 70 million in certain years).

I didn't shoot this one. It looked too pretty sitting on a fence in a residential area. Besides, I didn't have a rifle with me. So I shot it anyway ... with my camera.