Card #047 · Birds
European turtle dove
Streptopelia turtur
Rare VU · Vulnerable
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Columbiformes · Family Columbidae
- Range
- Europe, North Africa, Western Asia
- Size
- 26–28 cm (10–11 in)
- Weight
- 100–156 g (3.5–5.5 oz)
- Lifespan
- ~2 yrs (13 max)
- Diet
- Weed seeds, shoots
Most Notable
Europe lost roughly 78 percent of its turtle doves between 1980 and 2013. After a hunting moratorium began in 2021, the western breeding population rose again by about a quarter in 2024.
Nearly every other bird has to tip its head back and let gravity carry a mouthful down. Pigeons and doves do not. They can pump water straight up the bill and drink steadily with the head held low, which is exactly what this one is doing.
The name has nothing to do with turtles. It comes from the Latin turtur, an imitation of the soft rolling purr the male sings, and that same sound is repeated in the scientific name Streptopelia turtur.
It is Britain's only migratory dove, crossing the Sahara twice a year to winter along the southern edge of the desert.
The 2021 moratorium on hunting along the western flyway is one of the clearest cases on record of a hunting ban producing a measurable rebound in a declining bird.
Range: Breeds Europe and W Asia; winters in the Sahel.