Doves nest on Dubai Crown Prince’s car bonnet

Our Correspondent

A video of two nesting doves posted by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, has gone viral garnering 1,782,663 views and 16,556 comments so far. What is special is that the two doves have set up home on the bonnet of his Mercedes G-Wagen and the SUV has been cordoned off to ensure they can nest in peace.

“Sometimes the little things in life are more than enough,” he captioned the video. The Crown Prince is known as a nature lover, regularly sharing animal videos and photos on his Instagram page in which he goes by the name faz3. The Crown Prince is popularly known as Fazza, meaning “the one who helps” in Arabic.

The 80-second video zooms in on the nest to reveal two unhatched eggs, which then give way to two hatchlings as the video progresses. The “mother and father birds” are seen taking turns in removing the egg shells from the nest they had built in early August and also feed their chicks and kept them warm.

Earlier last week, Sheikh Hamdan had shared an Instagram story announcing that he would not use his vehicle for some time so as not to disturb the bird that decided to build a nest on it.

The bird is believed to be the laughing dove (Spilopelia senegalensis), so called for its distinctive call, and endemic to the Middle East and Sub Saharan Africa.