Does anyone know why doves would abandon a nest of 2 eggs after almost 3 weeks of nesting?
I think they sensed that the eggs were not going to hatch. If they have not been incubating the eggs for six or eight hours, they will not hatch now anyway. I would remove the eggs. The pair may return to the nest and try again if the nest is empty. Birds that lose their chicks or whose eggs don’t hatch will usually lay another set of eggs the same season — it’s called double-clutching. In fact sometimes professional ornithologists will remove the first clutch of eggs and incubate them so that the parents will lay another set, which they are allowed to raise naturally. (Oops…I see margecutter has better information than I do. I didn’t realize that doves were a protected species. Since they are, you’d better leave the eggs in the nest.
