# Trying to help a palm dove couple have babies



## B_Apple1987 (Jun 29, 2013)

Hello.
I live in Turkey and there are no laws against feeding wild birds or animals here. In fact, you need to feed them in order for them to survive in here since it is very hard for them to find food in where I live.
We have been feeding some palm doves (Brown ones without a collar on the back of their necks, the front of their necks has a scale like appearance and it swells when to coo) for 3 years everyday now. Some months ago, a couple of them decided to lay their eggs on the side of my room's window. The eggs fell victim to the crows unfortunately. They feed at our balcony and ever since losing their eggs, they have been mating after feeding themselves, on the railing of our balcony at 3 pm everyday. And I mean everyday, at the same time, sometimes twice a day. We have seen them carrying twigs on two different occasions, but they stopped their attempt of building a nest after a short while they began building it. I guess wherever they decided to build them, people saw the nest and removed it since they did not want the birds nesting on their balcony or window or etc.
What I want to know is, is it normal for them to mate everyday at the same spot at the same time? Does it mean anything and why do they do this? is it possible for us to provide a safe nesting spot for these fellas because they tend to choose the most unavailable spots all the time. There are a lot of crows and seagulls everywhere around here so we are their only option of them having babies. Also, we bought some hanging baskets with flowers etc, because I read some articles that said these birds liked nesting on them, but they don't even look in the basket's direction. Any help is appreciated.
Also, how long do they wait after mating to lay an egg? How long can they lay another batch of eggs after laying one batch of eggs? (The reason I am asking this is because I want to know if the eggs get attacked by a crow or some other creature, can they lay another batch immediately or if later, how long after?)
One more thing. Can they lay their eggs at the same spot they used before? I want them to nest on my window again to be under my supervision but they got attacked by crows last time, this time I'll take some protective measures.
Thank you.


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## Jay3 (May 4, 2008)

B_Apple1987 said:


> Hello.
> I live in Turkey and there are no laws against feeding wild birds or animals here. In fact, you need to feed them in order for them to survive in here since it is very hard for them to find food in where I live.
> We have been feeding some palm doves (Brown ones without a collar on the back of their necks, the front of their necks has a scale like appearance and it swells when to coo) for 3 years everyday now. Some months ago, a couple of them decided to lay their eggs on the side of my room's window. The eggs fell victim to the crows unfortunately. They feed at our balcony and ever since losing their eggs, they have been mating after feeding themselves, on the railing of our balcony at 3 pm everyday. And I mean everyday, at the same time, sometimes twice a day. We have seen them carrying twigs on two different occasions, but they stopped their attempt of building a nest after a short while they began building it. I guess wherever they decided to build them, people saw the nest and removed it since they did not want the birds nesting on their balcony or window or etc.
> *What I want to know is, is it normal for them to mate everyday at the same spot at the same time? Does it mean anything and why do they do this?*
> ...


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## Majd (Apr 6, 2013)

As jay3 said ... it is better to leave them choose another safer location..... and you may try a nest box...
But as Turkey is a neighbor country.... I know the amount of crows and seagulls that you guys have... so the only chance for doves to successfuly raise babies is inside buildings and such very safe places....


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