The mourning doves have all but disappeared from my yard over the last 5 years

I used to have 15-20 mourning doves under my feeder every morning when I first moved into this place in 2018. Now I'm lucky if I see 2 or 3 a week. Not sure if it's the Cooper's hawk that moved into the neighborhood last year or if something else changed in their population. Anyone else notice a big drop in certain birds over time in their area?

2 comments

2 Comments

milesrobinson10h ago

Started seeing the same decline here in my yard around the same time. That hawk is probably a big part of it since they love picking off doves. They are ground feeders and pretty slow so they are easy targets. Also noticed my local cat population went up and that definitely scared them off too.

aaronlee10h ago

Blaming the cats is just blaming the real MVP of the situation.