Mourning Doves

State and federal biologists from all ten Central Flyway states spend a portion of their mornings between 20 May and 5 June counting doves on 200 fixed routes in the Central Flyway as part of the national Mourning Dove Call-count Survey. Each route is 20 miles long and observers stop at one-mile intervals where they count doves seen and heard. The survey has been conducted since 1966. These data are combined by the USFWS with similar data from other states in the Central Management Unit to provide an annual index to population size for the Unit. Each year, a Mourning Dove Status Report is produced that compares the current data with that from historical counts. The survey costs $37,000 and takes 329 days to complete in the Central Flyway. More information is available on this web site about mourning doves and webless migratory birds.