See especially Movie of feeding of chicks (2.85 MB). It may be necessary to download this file to your machine first to view it.

These guys are also known as "Laughing Doves" and are very common here in Jerusalem. According to The Birdwatcher's Handbook by Ehrlich, Dobkin, Wheye, and Pimm, 1994, one to two eggs are normally laid, with an incubation period of 12-14 days. Both the male and female build the nest, the female does the incubation, and after hatching, fledging is from 14-17 days. Both the male and female look after the young, and pairs are monogamous.

During May I started seeing one sitting in the same spot over and over in the basil growing in the window box outside my office...

Day -14. May 22, 2008, 5:10pm

Day -14. May 22, 2008, 5:11pm: Finally a look...

Day -13. May 23, 2008: And now two.

Day 0: June 5, 2008, 815am. Palm Dove chicks are born altricial, that is, immobile, downless, eyes closed, and fed by the parents.

Day 0: June 5, 2008, 1144am:

Day 0: June 5, 2008, 1147am:

Day 5: June 10, 2008

Day 5: June 10, 2008

Day 6: June 11, 2008

Day 12: June 17, 2008. I had to film this with the window screens closed, but you can see well enough how feeding works. The parents feed the chicks with regurgitated material.
Movie of feeding of chicks (2.85 MB)

Day 15: June 20, 2008, 555am. Looking pretty mature...

Day 15: June 20, 2008, 950am. Starting to move around the window box...

Day 15: Friday, June 20, 2008, 528pm. Can't be much longer...

Day 17: Sunday, June 22, 2008. Gone! They left sometime on Saturday afternoon. Time to water the basil before it is too late.

June 27, 2008: Five days later....Mom is back with something she wants to deposit in the exact same place.

July 3, 2008. There were often two and sometimes three doves here this time around. The chicks??

July 13, 2008: One more once... דור הולך ודור בא והארץ לעולם עומדת.

Corrections and comments to: Jeff Finger