Mourning Doves look like they are wearing blue eye shadow.

Zenaida macroura are members of the Columbidae, or dove, family. I think they are a very pretty gray-brown color. I would paint a room – maybe a study – in “Mourning Dove.”

A photo I took in February.

I feel calm when I look at a calm dove.

They like sunflower seeds, millet and corn. They like to feed on the ground, but sometimes I see them relaxing in the tray of the tube feeder, nibbling a seed or two, or just staring off into space.

They get along with my chickens. Last night I watched two feeding with a fat brown rabbit under the pole feeder. They stuff their crops (just like chickens) then go roost and digest their meals.

Child With a Dove, Pablo Picasso, 1901

Henri Matisse sketching a dove. Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson.

I took this photo of a dove a couple of years ago in Rhodes, Greece.