Experience and progesterone in ring dove incubation.

Doves were tested for progesterone-induced incubation after they had acquired previous experience with from one to five different phases of their initial breeding cycle. A sixth group had no previous breeding experience. Previous breeding experience inclusive of at least the nestbuilding phase of the cycle is a significant facilitator of incubation behaviour induced by injected progesterone, but previous experience with only the courtship phase was not sufficient. Experience with phases additional to nestbuilding increased overall nest-responsiveness without significantly increasing the number of birds incubating. The nature of a ring dove's previous experience is therefore an important influence in its behavioural response to exogenous progesterone.