The other morning in the park, I happened upon a parent mourning dove feeding a pair of fluffy fledglings with the ‘crop milk’ secreted by several species of birds (mainly pigeons and flamingos — both sexes), which they regurgitate into the mouths of their young. I was puzzled to see this happening in April, when I’d have thought mourning doves would have barely courted and paired, so can’t explain why this one had young still to feed. (Maybe the youngsters came home because of the corona virus?)
Because the behavior was interesting, I stood a long while observing the birds through my binoculars. I have probably seen mourning doves nearly every day of my life, and would have told you I knew exactly what this bird looked like — but I doubt I’d ever looked at one through binoculars. The bird was also at eye level, not on the ground at my feet as usual, so I had a different viewpoint. What a revelation!
Did you know that mourning doves have azure-blue rings around their eyes? They are quite spectacular! Did you know they have a dusting of iridescent yellow on their necks? Have you ever noticed the pretty rosy-buffy color of their underparts? Probably not, as you’re usually looking down on them. How about the dainty spots which adorn their backs and wings? All of these characteristics had completed escaped me, in a bird I assumed that I knew well.
As I stood there taking all this in, I even began to question if this was a mourning dove at all, or perhaps some special, unfamiliar sort of pigeon. I had to come home and open the guidebook and the Cornell bird site to be positive that I had actually been looking at a ubiquitous, utterly familiar mourning dove.
I suppose this is what happens when we stop and consider long and thoughtfully about something which we assume that we know — we discover that we don’t at all. There’s a lesson here for our present Covid-19 episode, when our experiences are so limited. Maybe there are only mourning doves to look at, but if you really look at them, you’ll find yourself surprised by their unexpected beauty.
Linnetontheleaf 
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