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D & D Wildlife Photography
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The Eurasian-collared Dove is pale sandy brown, with buffy gray neck and a black collar. Larger than a Mourning Dove. Generally gray-brown with vinous pink flush, especially on chest. Distinctive black collar marking on nape, edged in white, not always visible in the field. Dark primaries and pale gray-brown mantle separated by a silvery patch on the wing wrist; underwings white. Tail not sharply pointed as in Mourning Dove, banded white below, dark near rump. Dark eye and bill; legs red. May be escapes of domesticated Ringed Turtle Dove, an Old World species. They are usually shy, not allowing close approach.
Loose, flat nest of , grass, weeds, and pine needles, placed in vertical fork or horizontal branch of tree, three to thirty feet high, or, rarely, on the ground. Lays two creamy white eggs.
Length: 12 1/2 inches
Habitat: Thrives in human-altered suburban habitats.
Voice: A coarse rapidly delivered three-part cooing. Unrolled "kuk-koooOO-kook", often in series.
Other Behavior: Eurasian Collared-Doves were introduced into the Bahamas in the 1970s, and their populations soon expanded around these islands. What happened next was unclear. At some point in the 1980s, Eurasian Collared-Doves migrated, without assistance, from the Bahamas to Florida. And because they look much like the Ringed Turtle-Dove (below), the collared-doves started to spread unnoticed. It wasn't until the mid-1980s that ornithologists realized the suddenly prolific and quickly spreading "turtle-doves" they were watching were actually Eurasian Collared-Doves.
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