# Do doves or pigeons ever sleep at night on the ground in bushes? And alone?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 8, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415 "2017-06-08T02:59:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/1 "2017-06-08T02:59:59Z")
See queries.
---
### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/2 "2017-06-08T03:28:31Z")
I can’t speak for all species but mourning doves typically nest in trees or bushes.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/3 "2017-06-08T04:19:14Z")
I’m not sure what you mean by “on the ground in bushes.” If they are in bushes, they are not on the ground.
There are more than 300 species of pigeons and doves. Most species probably typically sleep in trees. Some of the more terrestrial ones no doubt sleep in bushes.
Why do you ask?
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/4 "2017-06-08T15:36:00Z")
I live in Manhattan, although in a large private park-like area with fairly quiet expanses of trees and bushes. For two nights in a row my Golden Retriever has come bounding up from this large clump of bushes with a bird, a dove of sorts and a pigeon.
The pigeon was still barely alive; unlike terriers, for example, his (my dog’s) first instinct was not to kill it by bites or shaking it, but carry it around, and since he’s not trained to retrieve, he just was happy with a new toy and kind of shook it while romping.
I was worried that, I don’t know, some sort of rat poison was in one corner of that area and that the birds might have been slowed down or otherwise incapacitated before their encounters.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/5 "2017-06-08T15:43:01Z")
Every time I have encountered wood pigeons or city pigeons (rock doves) on the ground at night, they were sick or injured - probably not long for this world.
Birds go downhill fast when they get sick, because any sign of weakness marks them as easy prey, so they sort of carry on bravely and don’t outwardly display any symptoms - in the case of pet birds, this often means it’s too late to save them once they begin to look sick.
---
### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/6 "2017-06-08T15:56:08Z")
That is odd. The birds should have been startled away by the approach of your dog. Can you check the area out during the day and see if you notice anything off?
It’s possible the birds are ill. It’s possible there’s some sort of toxin. It’s possible they were asleep and he’s very sneaky (but that’s less likely).
If it happens again, you may want to keep the bird and talk to wildlife control about having it tested.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/7 "2017-06-08T16:01:08Z")
I would consider it very unusual for either a Rock Pigeon (the common city pigeon) or a Mourning Dove (the only likely dove in the city) to be perching at night in a low shrub. Pigeons normally perch on buildings for the night. Mourning Doves usually perch and nest in trees, less commonly in shrubs or on buildings and very rarely on the ground. I would not expect them to do the latter unless there were no suitable trees or buildings available, and it sounds like that’s not the case.
More than that I can’t say without more information.
---
### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/8 "2017-06-08T16:29:54Z")
We have a small dove very common to So Cal that I know as a ground dove. They are usually in pairs and do nest and often sleep on the ground near or under low bushed. They rely on camoflauge not to be seen and don’t seem to have much scent. Dogs can approach within just a few feet before they flush even when a nest is not present. I don’t know the proper name for this dove, about 1/2 the size of a mourning dove.
---
### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/9 "2017-06-08T16:46:31Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#):
>
> We have a small dove very common to So Cal that I know as a ground dove. They are usually in pairs and do nest and often sleep on the ground near or under low bushed. They rely on camoflauge not to be seen and don’t seem to have much scent. Dogs can approach within just a few feet before they flush even when a nest is not present. I don’t know the proper name for this dove, about 1/2 the size of a mourning dove.
Sounds like the [Common Ground-Dove.](https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Ground-Dove/lifehistory) 🙂 (Yeah, that’s its actual name.)
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/10 "2017-06-13T16:18:36Z")
I’m late in getting back to this, but one part of OP and it’s uncertainty was solved the very next night in what may be called SerenDipity, but perhaps with a darker aspect: that “dove of sorts”–the “dove” part because it was smaller–I recognized because I ate[two of them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squab_as_food) for dinner, went looking for information on what they are with all their insides and outside still present. The chick was even smaller/younger than the retail birds shown.
Gosh, maybe the second night’s prey of my dog was the mother of the first night’s.
FWIW, on
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#):
>
> We have a small dove very common to So Cal that I know as a ground dove. They are usually in pairs and do nest and often sleep on the ground near or under low bushed. They rely on camoflauge not to be seen and don’t seem to have much scent. Dogs can approach within just a few feet before they flush even when a nest is not present. I don’t know the proper name for this dove, about 1/2 the size of a mourning dove.
SD weighed in on this, inconclusively and perhaps lacking that intellectual rigor commonly expected in GQ :), in \*\*[Are mourning doves stupid?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=16113993)
\*\*
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/11 "2017-06-13T17:06:52Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> I would consider it very unusual for either a Rock Pigeon (the common city pigeon) or a Mourning Dove (the only likely dove in the city) to be perching at night in a low shrub. Pigeons normally perch on buildings for the night. Mourning Doves usually perch and nest in trees, less commonly in shrubs or on buildings and very rarely on the ground. I would not expect them to do the latter unless there were no suitable trees or buildings available, and it sounds like that’s not the case.
>
> More than that I can’t say without more information.
We have mourning doves who spend more time on the ground than they do in a perch. Just the other night when I was taking out the garbage I startled one who was AFAICT fast asleep in the grass.
---
### Author:  [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/12 "2017-06-13T20:30:01Z")
It is not considered uncommon for Mourning Doves to nest on the ground. Something I’ve read and witnessed.
---
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/13 "2017-06-14T00:23:58Z")
Well, I waited this long:
Pigeons on the grass alas.
Pigeons on the grass alas.
Short longer grass short longer longer shorter yellow grass. Pigeons
large pigeons on the shorter longer yellow grass alas pigeons on the
grass.
If they were not pigeons what were they.
If they were not pigeons on the grass alas what were they. He had
heard of a third and he asked about it it was a magpie in the sky.
If a magpie in the sky on the sky can not cry if the pigeon on the
grass alas can alas and to pass the pigeon on the grass alas and the
magpie in the sky on the sky and to try and to try alas on the
grass alas the pigeon on the grass the pigeon on the grass and alas.
They might be very well they might be very well very well they might
be.
Let Lucy Lily Lily Lucy Lucy let Lucy Lucy Lily Lily Lily Lily
Lily let Lily Lucy Lucy let Lily. Let Lucy Lily.
From Thomson’s _Four Saints in Three Acts,_ 1927, libretto by Gertrude Stein
---
### Author:  [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2017, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-doves-or-pigeons-ever-sleep-at-night-on-the-ground-in-bushes-and-alone/788415/14 "2017-06-14T04:59:37Z")
I walked in Riverside Park in Manhattan yesterday and saw several Mourning doves, a few of them emerging from bushes.