Turtle dove - Streptopelia turtur - Family: Columbidae

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Turtle dove - Streptopelia turtur
© Robin Chittenden www.harlequinpictures.co.uk

The turtle dove is an attractive summer visitor to England, the only migrant pigeon found here. It winters in West Africa. It has a pinkish-grey head and neck with narrow black and white banding on the side of the neck. The upper parts of the body are mottled chestnut-brown and black, contrasting with the pale pinkish underparts. The turtle dove prefers lowland farmland with established hedgerows, feeding on cereal fields and nesting in woods and hedgerows. Probably because of agricultural intensification, numbers of turtle doves have crashed in recent years and there are now fewer than 75,000 pairs. It will occasionally visit gardens in rural farming locations and may nest in ivy-covered trees and hawthorn.

The voice is a soft and gentle 'turring', and is even mentioned in the Song of Solomon. The name, in both English and Latin, is onomatopoeic - ie imitative of the bird's call - and has no connection with sea creatures!

Food

Feeds almost exclusively on the seeds of fumitory but also small seeds of other plants growing in the margins of weedy fields. Also takes some grain.

Plants

Common fumitory, Hawthorn, Ivy, Midland hawthorn

Predators

Sparrowhawk