- Streptopelia turtur
Identification
30cm.
- Grey brown plumage
- Sides of head are yellow
- Pink neck and breast
- Grey blue nape, crown, flanks and rump
- Cinnamon wings with black mottling
- White belly and undertail coverts
- Red eye rim
- Red legs and toes
Similar Species
Oriental Turtle Dove is probably the biggest problem, especially birds of subspecies meena
Distribution
Western Palearctic to northern Afghanistan. Winters south to southern Africa.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
This is a polytypic species, consisting of four subspecies:
- S. t. turtur:
- Azores, Canary Islands and Europe to western Siberia and Kazakhstan
- S. t. arenicola:
- Balearic Islands and north-western Africa to Iran and extreme western China
- S. t. hoggara:
- Southern Sahara (Aïr Massif and Hoggar Mountains)
- S. t. rufescens:
Habitat
Open woodlands.
Behaviour
Its nest is built from twigs and is placed in a tree. The clutch consists of 2 white eggs which are incubated by both sexes.
Vocalisation
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
- Birdforum thread discussing identification of European Turtle-Dove vs meena Oriental Turtle-Dove
- The Free Online Dictionary
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) European Turtle Dove. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 1 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/European_Turtle_Dove
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
