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SPANISH LAKE — The sun was just rising over the tree line at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area when the first traps were set with sunflower seeds to catch, and band, one of the most abundant birds in North America: the mourning dove.

The hunting season for these birds starts at the beginning of September, which means now is the time for the Missouri Department of Conservation to start tracking their populations.

Workers set traps for doves at the Columbia Bottom and Bellefontaine conservation areas, just north of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ City. The data from Missouri will be pooled with other states, and this will help the federal government set the rules for this year’s dove hunting season.

“Dove banding is one of the only times we get to handle live animals,â€� said John Vogel, a natural history biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. “It’s neat. And getting a morning out in the field when it’s 80 degrees, in July, in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is pretty rare.â€�

Banding mourning doves lets wildlife managers track migration patterns and assess population sizes and nesting success.

Mourning doves are migratory birds found in the U.S. year-round. Described as “prolific breeders,� these birds may raise up to six broods in a year — more than any other U.S. native bird.

Their mating call — “coo-ah, coo, coo, coo� — is commonly mistaken for that of an owl. Once a pair of doves decide to mate, they will “kiss� as part of their bonding ritual, where they grasp beaks and bob their heads up and down in unison.

Each brood has two eggs, which are incubated for two weeks. Once they hatch the baby doves, called squabs, stay in the nest for two more weeks until they can fly.

Their diet is about 99% seeds, which is why the metal traps set out by the Missouri Department of Conservation lay atop a bed of black oil sunflower seeds scattered on the ground — which attract myriad birds, including red-winged blackbirds, cardinals, swallows, goldfinches and doves.

Once a dove gets caught, Vogel gently pulls it out of the trap and checks if it is an adult or juvenile. If it is an adult, their coloration indicates their sex. Males have blue-grey feathers on top of their heads and shimmering purple feathers on their necks.

Juvenile birds don’t have the coloration to be sexed, but their age can be determined by the number of fully grown primary feathers on their wings. The more fully grown feathers they have, the older the bird is.

Finally, the dove gets a numbered aluminum band that goes around either of their legs. Once the process is finished, the bird is usually very calm — so calm, even when you open your palm to release it, it’ll sit for a minute or two before it flies off.

Some of the other birds are much less friendly when they get caught in the traps.

“Cardinals will bite, and they’ll hurt. If you have a hangnail or something, they’ll find it,� Vogel said as he held a screeching cardinal that got caught in one of the traps.

Since mourning doves are game birds that migrate across state lines, the federal government sets annual rules for dove hunting based on population sizes across the country. Each state then decides how to regulate its season within those federal rules.

Missouri has been participating in dove banding since the national program began in 2003.

Vogel said other game birds that are banded in Missouri include Canada geese and wood ducks. Peregrine falcons are banded for continued conservation purposes, after they spent nearly 30 years on the Endangered Species List. Brown-headed nuthatches are being banded as they are reintroduced to the Ozarks after populations suffered habitat loss.

Mourning doves’ doppelgangers, the Eurasian collared dove, have recently arrived in Missouri and are also considered legal game. These birds are a little bigger than mourning doves and sport a “collar,� a black crescent at the bottom of their necks, after which they are named.

Vogel said they haven’t captured any Eurasian collared doves so far this year, and they don’t band them since their population is still small.

Mourning dove hunting comes with many regulations, including the requirement for two permits: a small game hunting permit, and a migratory bird hunting permit. There are also limits to how many doves you can harvest in a day (15), and how many doves you can possess at any one time (45).

In addition to banding them, the Missouri Department of Conservation provides mourning doves with food through sunflower fields planted each spring. These fields have been planted to attract doves since 1998 and have recently become a popular attraction for local photographers, too.

The sunflowers will likely be late this year, according to the department, since a drought hit right when the seeds were sown, delaying their germination.

The department also hosts managed dove hunts at the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area. Registration for these hunts is open now, and closes at the end of July.