U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service

This report includes Mourning Dove Call-count Survey information gathered over the last 39 years within the conterminous United States. Trends were calculated for the most recent 2and 10-year intervals and for the entire 39-year period. Between 2003 and 2004, the average number of doves heard per route decreased significantly in the Eastern and Central Management Units. No change was detected in the Western Unit. Over the most recent 10 years, no significant trend was indicated for doves heard in any management unit. Over the 39-year period, all 3 units exhibited significant declines. In contrast, for doves seen over the 10-year period, a significant increase was found in the Eastern Unit while no trends were found in the Central and Western Units. Over 39 years, no trend was found for doves seen in the Eastern and Central Units while a decline was indicated for the Western Unit. The mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) is a migratory bird, thus, authority and responsibility for its management is vested in the Secretary of the Interior. This responsibility is conferred by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 which, as amended, implements migratory bird treaties between the United States and other countries. Mourning doves are included in the treaties with Great Britain (for Canada) and Mexico. These treaties recognize sport hunting as a legitimate use of a renewable migratory bird resource. In recent years, less than 6% of the fall population of mourning doves was estimated to have been harvested annually. As one of the most abundant species in both urban and rural areas of North America, it is familiar to millions of people. Maintenance of mourning dove populations in a healthy, productive state is a primary management goal. To this end, management of doves includes assessment of population status, regulation of harvest, and habitat management. Call-count surveys are conducted annually in the 48 conterminous states by state and federal biologists to monitor mourning dove populations. The resulting information on status and trends is used by wildlife administrators in setting annual hunting regulations. The primary purpose of this report is to facilitate the prompt distribution of timely information. Results are preliminary and may change with the inclusion of additional data. DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE Mourning doves breed from the southern portions of Canada throughout the United States into Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Greater Antilles, and scattered locations in Central America (Fig. 1). Although some mourning doves winter throughout most of the breeding range, except for central Canada and the north-central U.S., the majority migrate south, wintering in the southern United States and south throughout most of Mexico and Central America to western Panama (Aldrich 1993, Mirarchi and Baskett 1994). The mourning dove is one of the most widely distributed and abundant birds in North America (Peterjohn et al. 1994, Fig. 1). Although not known precisely, the fall population for the United States was estimated to be about 475 million in the 1970’s (Dunks et al. 1982, Tomlinson et al. 1988). We believe that the mourning dove population has declined to a present population size of slightly more than 400 million in the United States. POPULATION MONITORING The Mourning Dove Call-count Survey was developed to provide an annual index to population size (Dolton 1993). This survey is based on work by McClure (1939) in Iowa. Field studies demonstrated the feasibility of the survey as a method for detecting annual changes in mourning dove breeding populations (Foote and Peters 1952). In the United States, the survey currently includes more than 1,000 randomly selected routes, Fig. 1. Breeding and wintering ranges of the mourning dove (adapted from Mirarchi and Baskett 1994). stratified by physiographic region. The total number of doves heard on each route is used to determine trends in populations and provides the basis for determining an index to population size during the breeding season. Indices for doves seen are also presented in this report, but only as supplemental information for comparison with indices of doves heard. Even though both the numbers of doves heard and seen are counted during the survey, they are recorded separately. Within the United States, there are 3 zones that contain mourning dove populations that are largely independent of each other (Kiel 1959). These zones encompass the principal breeding, migration, and U.S. wintering areas for each population. As suggested by Kiel (1959), these 3 areas were established as separate management units in 1960 (Kiel 1961). Since that time, management decisions have been made within the boundaries of the Eastern (EMU), Central (CMU), and Western (WMU) Management Units (Fig. 2). The EMU was further divided into 2 groups of states for analyses. States permitting dove hunting were combined into one group and those prohibiting dove hunting into another. Wisconsin became a hunting state for the first time in 2003. Additionally, some states were grouped to increase sample sizes. Maryland and Delaware were combined; Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island were combined to form a New England group. Due to its small size, Rhode Island, which is a hunting state, was included in this nonhunting group of states for analysis.