Read about doves
We may see doves in town and in the country. They live in flocks of twenty or more. The doves are about twelve inches long. They are usually of an ash-grey color.
Their bill is brown, their eyes are yellow, with a red circle round them. Some people find doves very pretty.
The wood dove makes its nest of sticks in a high tree. Here it lays two eggs, and has only one brood a year.
The note of the dove is very pleasant. It coos in most gentle and sweet tones.
People often tame doves. We can see them in large numbers in many places where they are fed. Town doves use ledges of high buildings for their nests. The doves remember their nests very well and always come back to them. People know it and teach them to carry messages from one place to another.
Answer the questions:
Where do doves live?
What do they look like?
Where do they make their nests?
What can you say about the note of the dove?
Do people often tame doves?
What do they teach them to do?
Read the story and find out why the bee stung the boy.
The Dove and the Bee
One day a bee fell into the water. It was a bad fall, fo the bee got wet and could not fly up. She could not swim.
A dove saw it. She took a leaf in her beak and dropped it into the water near the bee. The bee crawled upon the leaf and floated to land.
One day this dove was making a nest. She flew here and there to get leaves and hay. A boy saw the dove and thought, “I shall throw a stone at that dove and kill her.” As he held up the stone, the bee saw him and stung him on the hand. The boy jumped up and dropped the stone. So the dove flew away safe.
Memorize the proverb:
One good turn desrves another. – Послуга за послугу.
Answer quickly!
- Who fell into the water?
- Who saw it?
- What did the dove drop into the water?
- Who was going to kill the dove?
- How did the bee help the dove?
I found out that the dove’s geographic range started in Asia and has spread to Africa and Europe and then on to the New World. Their food in the wild includes worms, moths, crickets, earthworms, chopped vegetables and fruits. Predators of the dove are snakes and other bigger birds.
These birds are able to cross the distance of 900 km a day.
Their speed reaches 70 km per hour.
On average, pigeons live about 20 years.
And on our planet there are about 30 monuments devoted about to doves.
The fur coat of an adult pigeon has about 10 thousand feathers.
The pigeon boasts a wonderful sight.
These birds look 3 times faster than humans.
How to define it? Light. In one second we see 24 frames, and the doves – 75.
There are some differences between a dove and a pigeon. A dove is a cute, peaceful and soft looking white bird while a pigeon is a feral and street bird that can be found in grey, blue, brown colours but not in white colour. Both pigeon and dove are the members of same Columbidae Family, which consists of more than 300 species of birds.
Some more interesting facts about doves:
Doves mate for life.
In captivity, they often live up to 30 years of age.
Doves have been used as messengers for thousands of years, particularly during war.
The Battle of Waterloo, the Franco-Prussian War and Genghis Khan all used messenger Pigeons during battles.
Pigeons played a vital role in World War One. Over 100,000 played a part and had an amazing 95% success rate in delivering their messages.
In the late 1800s, the most heroic recorded flight was from a pigeon released in Africa that took 55 days to get home to England. Travelling over a staggering 11,000 kilometres!
Doves are very beautiful birds and I found out some interesting facts about them:
Mourning doves are primarily seed eaters, meaning they do not eat insects.
The cooing sound you hear is almost always made by the males.
When they sleep, they tuck their heads between their shoulders, close to their body.
There are 310 different species of pigeons and doves.
Pigeons and doves are likely the most common birds in the world.
Pigeon is known to many as a symbol of peace and harmony, which makes these birds like to run on various promotions and weddings. There are monuments to them in more than 30 cities. Not to mention, on how many curbs on which birds are present as attachments. I want to add that in history there are examples of ill-treatment of dove. One of them, in the first few Olympic Games, shooters did not shoot on plates, as it is today, but on alive doves.
Ksenia, can you find out what the cities with the monuments to doves are? I haven’t heard that doves were used as cockshots at the Olympics. Very sad.
In my opinion doves are beautiful, pretty and cute.
I found some interesting facts about these birds.
They mostly eat seeds and fruit.
Doves drink a lot of water because they need to digest the massive amounts of seeds that they eat.
Dove chicks will leave the nest after 10 to 36 days.
Young doves are called “squabs.”
Doves generally live between 10 to 12 years, with some known to live a bit longer.
Doves are amazing animals. Their capacity to find their way home over hundreds, even thousands of kilometres is unrivalled in the animal kingdom. This uncanny ability has seen them used for centuries to deliver messages for royalty, military leaders and other notable figures. Doves generally live between 10 to 12 years, with some known to live a bit longer. Young doves are called “squabs.”.