Spark Bird: Rickie Lee Jones and the Mourning Dove

BirdNote^®
Spark Bird: Rickie Lee Jones and the Mourning Dove
Written by Ariana Remmel

This is BirdNote.

Grammy-winning musician Rickie Lee Jones says her earliest memories are of sounds: running water, a bouncing ball — and birds.

Rickie Lee Jones: When I grew up in Arizona, I would hear the Mourning Dove in the morning on the way to school, cooing late in the afternoon.

         [Mourning Dove]

Rickie grew to love that soothing song — and even learned to coo like a dove by blowing into her cupped hands.

Rickie Lee Jones: Gotta warm those hands up... [sound of hands rubbing together, then MODO imitation]

On tour, Rickie heard Mourning Doves across the U.S. and started noticing subtle, regional differences in their songs, including the doves in her hometown.

Rickie Lee Jones: I didn't know I knew this till I went back to visit my dad when I was 30 years old and I was walking in the dirt by some oleanders and I heard the dove and remembered all this. I just got goosebumps. I just was connected instantly to my childhood there. The dove was the way in, and that's probably the first bird that really called to me.

Now Rickie calls back to the doves from her patio — and the stage.

         [Intro to Atlas’ Marker by Rickie Lee Jones]

For BirdNote, I’m Mark Bramhill.

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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Mourning Dove ML109016 recorded by Geoffrey A. Keller and ML250668091 recorded by Ryan O'Donnell.

BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2026 BirdNote May 2026
Narrator: Mark Bramhill

ID# sparkbird-27-2025-05-21    sparkbird-27