This species sometimes goes by the English name Rufous Turtle-Dove, a name now usually reserved for the Central Asian subspecies S. o. meena. Six subspecies are recognized. This is the widespread, partly migratory nominate race which is somewhat paler than the others. Compared to S. o. meena, it has a gray, rather than white tail tip. Its more extensive dark gray (not black) centers to the mantle feathers, and its pale gray (not rusty) tips to the greater and median coverts help distinguish this species from the similar European Turtle-Dove (S. turtur). In North America, Oriental Turtle-Dove has been recorded as a vagrant to Alaska, Canada and California.
