Mourning Dove

When a real one finally turns up, here's how you'll know it: a warm fawn-brown body, a long pointed tail edged in white, a scatter of crisp black wing-spots, a slim head and thin dark bill — and, crucially, no collar on the neck. (That last one is what told us the bird we thought was a mourning dove was really another collared-dove in disguise.)

That sad 'coo-OO-oo-oo' is really a male advertising for a mate. Both parents make a rich 'crop milk' to feed the chicks, and they can drink without lifting their heads — sucking water like a horse, which almost no other bird can do. Even their whistling takeoff isn't a voice: the feathers make that sharp twitter, and it doubles as a built-in alarm that flushes the whole flock skyward.