Dove landscaping involves designing an outdoor space to welcome and support doves. This practice enhances a garden’s aesthetic appeal, bringing peace and natural beauty. By integrating elements that cater to doves, a landscape offers both visual charm and ecological benefits.
Why Create a Dove-Friendly Landscape
Designing a landscape to attract doves offers multiple advantages. Their soft cooing adds a calming auditory element to the garden, contributing to a tranquil atmosphere. Doves also provide ecological benefits, such as natural pest control by consuming weed seeds and aiding in seed dispersal, which can support local plant biodiversity. Observing doves in their natural behaviors, from foraging to nesting, provides a fulfilling experience for garden enthusiasts.
Providing Food Sources for Doves
Doves are primarily ground-feeding birds, and their diet largely consists of seeds. Incorporating native plants that produce seeds they favor is an effective way to provide natural food sources. Sunflowers (e.g., black oil sunflowers), coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), and various grasses like switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and Ohio goldenrod (Solidago ohioensis) are excellent choices as their seeds are highly attractive to doves. These plants offer a sustained food supply as their seeds mature.
Beyond cultivating specific plants, strategic placement of scattered seeds or ground feeders can supplement their diet. Doves prefer areas where they can feed on the ground, so scattering white proso millet, cracked corn, or safflower seeds in open, clear spaces is effective. Ensuring that these foraging areas are relatively free of dense vegetation or thick debris allows doves easy access and provides a sense of security.
Incorporating Water Features
Consistent access to fresh water is important for doves, both for drinking and bathing. Shallow bird baths are particularly suitable, as doves prefer water sources that are typically 1 to 2 inches deep. Adding small stones or a shallow ramp to a bird bath can provide better footing and make it easier for them to access the water.
Ground-level water sources are also highly appealing to larger ground-feeding birds like doves. Placement of these water features is important for their safety. Locating bird baths and other water sources in open areas, away from dense shrubbery where predators might hide, allows doves a clear line of sight to detect potential threats. Regular cleaning of water features is necessary to maintain hygiene and ensure a continuous supply of fresh water.
Creating Shelter and Nesting Areas
Providing suitable shelter and nesting sites is important for attracting doves. Dense shrubs, small trees, and evergreens offer protection from predators and harsh weather conditions. Mourning doves often build nests in tree limbs, ledges, or dense foliage.
Layered planting, which includes various heights of vegetation from groundcovers to tall trees, provides different levels of cover for resting and roosting. Allowing some garden areas to remain somewhat wild, with scattered twigs, grass clippings, and pine needles, can offer natural nesting materials for their simple, loose nests. While doves do not typically use enclosed nest boxes, a nesting platform or shelf mounted between 7 and 12 feet high on a building or under eaves can sometimes be utilized.
Maintaining Your Dove Landscape
Ongoing care is necessary to ensure a dove-friendly landscape remains hospitable. Regular cleaning of water features, such as bird baths, is important to prevent algae and bacteria buildup, ensuring a clean water supply. If using feeders, a continuous and consistent supply of seeds should be maintained, as doves rely on reliable food sources.
Responsible pruning of plants is also important, focusing on maintaining the dense cover that doves utilize for protection and roosting, rather than excessive trimming that removes their shelter. Minimizing the use of pesticides and herbicides in the garden helps protect doves and their food sources. These chemicals can harm birds directly or indirectly by reducing the availability of seeds and insects they might consume.
Addressing Common Challenges
While creating a dove-friendly landscape is rewarding, some challenges may arise. Predators such as outdoor cats and hawks can pose a threat to doves. Strategic plant placement, ensuring feeding and watering areas are in open spaces with clear sightlines, can help doves spot and escape.
Managing potential disease spread at feeders is another consideration. Regular cleaning of feeders and rotating feeder locations can help prevent the accumulation of droppings and mold, which can harbor pathogens. While generally beneficial, a successful dove habitat might lead to a higher local population. If overpopulation becomes a concern, reducing supplemental feeding can naturally manage numbers, ensuring a healthy balance within the local environment.