FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 1. — The mourning dove is the only gome bird that breeds in every State. [Phc 

 togrophed by Allen M. Pearson.] 



WINTER RANGE 



Single birds or even small flocks of doves sometimes spend the 

 winter north almost to the limits of the breeding range, but normally 

 at that season the doves are found south of a zone that extends east- 

 ward across the United States from California to Colorado, Iowa, 

 southern Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey. 



Most of the doves breeding east of the Mississippi River con- 

 centrate during the winter in the Southeastern States: South Carolina, 

 Georgia, northern Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In 

 some years, however, large flocks wint(>r north as far as Kentucky 

 and North Carolina. Few if any of these eastern birds leave the 

 United States at any time. On the other hand, many of the western 

 doves regularly winter in Mexico. 



MIGRATION 



Because of the extensive breeding range of the mourning dove it is 

 obvious that many birds that nest in southern latitudes where they 



