Some of our local birds don’t stop at just one nesting in a season.
In fact, it’s surprising how many of our favorite birds raise two – or even three – broods every year. Our breeding season is long enough and our natural areas produce enough food to enable some birds – songbirds mostly – to raise multiple families in a single season.
Count our state bird among them. American robins often raise two broods in one summer. The broods can overlap with the female laying a second or possibly even a third clutch of eggs while the male is scurrying for food to feed older chicks. These common birds are always welcome in our urban and suburban yards.
The champion multi-brooders are arguably our mourning doves. This sturdy, brownish fast-flyer is prolific, favoring a return every year to a certain nesting place. That place might be a ledge, a tree, or even a planter. If they’re around, you’ll hear their long mournful cooing call. It’s claimed that a nesting pair in Ohio once raised an amazing six clutches in a single season. Two to three is more likely.
Among the other species known to sometimes raise more than one brood are our Northern cardinals, wrens, and bluebirds.
