Mourning Doves and SUVs

Today when I parked my Volvo at the office, I looked at the row of cars in front of me and noticed a mating pair of mourning doves perched on a Chevy SUV. One was on the roof; the other was balanced on a side mirror. As I sat and watched, the dove on the mirror grew restless, hopped to the SUV's hood, and went skittering along the hood's smooth surface. This was unsatisfactory footing, so the dove left the hood and flew down the row of cars to land on the roof of a Toyota SUV, passing en route over a sedan, a pickup truck with a topper (relatively SUV-like, you might suppose, but not close enough to please the bird), and a sports car. After a minute the dove grew lonely on the Toyota SUV and flew back to join its mate on the roof of the Chevy SUV.

I have seen many mourning doves in my life, but I have never seen one perch on a vehicle. Moreover, I would not have guessed that a dove would prefer SUVs over other vehicles. There seems to be a lesson here but I'm not sure what it is.