European turtle dove

Taxonomy

The European turtle dove was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba turtur. The specific epithet turtur is the Latin word for a turtle dove. Linnaeus gave the locality as "India". This was an error and the type locality has been designated as England. The species is now placed in the genus Streptopelia that was introduced in 1855 by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.

Four subspecies are recognised:

• northern turtle dove (S. t. turtur) (Linnaeus, 1758) – Europe, Madeira and the Canary Islands to western Siberia
• Persian turtle dove (S. t. arenicola) (Hartert, 1894) – Northwest Africa to Iran and western China
• Saharan turtle dove (S. t. hoggara) (Geyr von Schweppenburg, 1916) – Air Massif and Hoggar Mountains (southern Sahara)
• Egyptian turtle dove (S. t. rufescens) (Brehm, CL, 1845) – Egypt and northern Sudan

Despite the identical spelling, the "turtle" of the name, derived from Middle English turtle (tortle, turtel, turtul), derived from Old English turtla (male turtle dove), turtle (female turtle dove), ultimately derived from Latin turtur, has no connection with the reptile; "turtle" in this case came originally from Latin turtur, onomatopoeic for the song. The genus name Streptopelia is from Ancient Greek streptos meaning "collar" and peleia meaning "dove".

A few other doves in the genus Streptopelia are also commonly called 'turtle doves':

• the Asian Oriental turtle dove S. orientalis and red turtle dove S. tranquebarica.
• the African dusky turtle dove S. lugens and Adamawa turtle dove S. hypopyrrha.

A few other species from the related Nesoenas and Spilopelia genera, which were both formerly included in the genus, also possess common names containing the term 'turtle dove'.

Description

Smaller and slighter in build than many other doves, it measures 26–28 cm (10–11 in) in length, 47–53 cm (19–21 in) in wingspan and weighs 100–156 g (3.5–5.5 oz). The European turtle dove may be recognised by its browner colour, and the black-and-white-striped patch on the side of its neck. The tail is notable as the bird flies from the observer; it is wedge shaped, with a dark centre and white borders and tips. When viewed from below, this pattern, owing to the white under-tail coverts obscuring the dark bases, is a blackish chevron on a white ground. This can be seen when the bird stoops to drink and raises its spread tail.

The mature bird has the head, neck, flanks, and rump blue grey, and the wings cinnamon, mottled with black. The breast is vinaceous, the abdomen and under tail coverts are white. The bill is black, the legs and eye rims are red. The black and white patch on the side of the neck is absent in the browner and duller juvenile bird, which also has the legs brown.

Distribution and status

The turtle dove is a migratory species with a western Palearctic range covering most of Europe and the Middle East and including Turkey and north Africa, although it is rare in northern Scandinavia and Russia. It winters south of the Sahara.

The turtle dove, one of the latest migrants, rarely appears in Northern Europe before the end of April, returning south again in September.

It is a bird of open rather than dense woodlands, and frequently feeds on the ground. It will occasionally nest in large gardens, but is usually extremely timid, probably due to the heavy hunting pressure it faces during migration. The flight is often described as arrowy, but is not remarkably swift.

The nuptial flight, high and circling, is like that of the common wood pigeon, but the undulations are less decided; it is accompanied by the whip-crack of the downward flicked wings. The arrival in spring is heralded by its cooing or purring song, a rather deep, vibrating “turrr, turrr”.

Status

Populations of turtle dove are in rapid decline across Europe and this species has red list conservation status globally. In the United Kingdom its numbers have declined by 93% since 1994 and across Europe numbers fell by 78% 1980–2013.

Environmentalist groups have said that the decline of turtle doves in Europe is partly because changed farming practices mean that the weed seeds and shoots on which it feeds, especially fumitory, are scarcer, and partly due to shooting of birds in Mediterranean countries. According to a 2001 study cited by the European Commission, between two and four million birds are shot annually in Malta, Cyprus, France, Italy, Spain and Greece. Environmentalists have described spring hunting in Malta as particularly problematic as it is the only country with an EU derogation to shoot birds during their spring migration to breeding grounds.

According to a 2007 study by the European Commission, four currently identifiable potential threats to the turtle dove are (1) habitat loss/modification (medium to low impact), (2) droughts and climate change (mostly unknown but likely low impact), (3) hunting (partly unknown but overall medium impact), and (4) competition with the collared dove (unknown impact). The British Trust for Ornithology has also highlighted Trichomonosis parasite as a threat to the turtle dove.