Eurasian collared dove

Streptopelia decaocto

Group: Upland birds
Size class: Small (under 10 kg)
Family: Columbidae

Range

Europe
Asia
North America

Habitat

Farmland

Range

Countries it is found in

127 countries

Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Antigua & Barbuda
Armenia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bosnia & Herzegovina
British Virgin Islands
Bulgaria
Canada
Cape Verde
Caribbean Netherlands
Cayman Islands

Range from:Wikipedia country bird lists, GBIF occurrence records — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is a grey-buff dove named for the black, white-edged half-collar on its nape. Its range at the end of the 19th century ran from eastern Turkey to southern China and south to Sri Lanka; in the 20th century it spread explosively north-west across Europe, reaching Germany in 1945, Great Britain in 1952 and beyond the Arctic Circle in Norway. Fewer than 50 birds that escaped in the Bahamas in 1974 seeded a population now found in nearly every US state. The first Swedish record was in 1949 and the first breeding in Skåne in the early 1950s. It now lives in towns and villages in southern and central Sweden and locally along the Norrland coast to Luleå, but numbers have fallen; in 2025 it was red-listed in Sweden as near threatened, with about 6,200 breeding birds.

Chapter 02

Identification

A medium-sized, slender dove averaging 32 cm with a 47–55 cm wingspan and weighing 125–240 g. It is grey-buff to pinkish-grey, slightly darker above, with a blue-grey patch under the wing and a long tail edged broadly white below. The black half-collar is the mark to look for; juveniles have it only poorly developed and a brown rather than red iris. The legs are short and red and the bill black. The call is a three-note goo-GOO-goo, stressed on the second syllable, and it gives a harsh screech in flight just before landing. Cooing collared doves in early spring are sometimes mistaken for early cuckoos.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

Collared doves breed close to people — almost all nests are within a kilometre of inhabited buildings — laying two white eggs in a flimsy stick nest. The female incubates by night and the male by day for 14–18 days, and three to four broods a year are common. Birds can breed when only a few months old. The male's display flight is a near-vertical climb followed by a long circling glide on lowered wings. It feeds mostly on seed and grain, gathering where grain is spilled around farms and livestock feed; winter flocks usually number 10 to 50 birds.

Chapter 04

Hunting

In North America, where it was introduced, the Eurasian collared dove is treated as invasive. It is a known carrier of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae and of pigeon paramyxovirus type 1, which can pass to native birds at feeders and to domestic poultry. In Sweden the turkduva has no open season in the hunting ordinance and is not among the species named for skyddsjakt on the hunter's own initiative in its bilaga 4.

Field data

Tracks

A photograph of real sign left by Eurasian collared dove. Prints vary with gait, ground and how long they have been there — treat this as one example, not a template.

Track photo:Grupo Phoenix CC BY SA

Sources

Sources: Eurasian collared dove — Wikipedia, Turkduva — Wikipedia (svenska), Jaktförordning (1987:905) — Sveriges riksdag — read 2026-10-29

Zenaida auriculata

Same family (Columbidae)

South America