I can relate to that, yes we do have doves and a a couple of varieties of wild pigeon.
When I was but 17 (not long ago) I was still living in Yass and rode a Yamaha DT360a doing about 70mph ( before the speedos were changed to km) and a sparrow came up out of the road side grasses and caught me fair square in the middle of left knee cap... Hurt like hell could have swore it broke the cap but it didn't, who would have thought such a tiny little soft bird could hurt so much, so I imagine you were lucky the dove didn't break a rib
Oh and 1olbul, "fanging" is another way of saying getting stuck into it an having a bit of fun