# Collared dove

Category: Animal House

## Post 1 by nikos (English words from a Greek thinking brain) on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2006 15:22:23

Hi.
In the following article you can find more about the collared dove, one of my favorite birds.
Enjoy.
The Eurasian Collared Dove, Streptopelia decaocto, also called the Eurasian Collared-Dove or simply the Collared Dove, is one of the great colonisers of the avian world. Its original range was warmer temperate regions from southeastern Europe to Japan. However, in the twentieth century it expanded across the rest of Europe, reaching as far west as Great Britain by 1953, and Ireland soon after. It also now breeds north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia. It is not migratory.
It was accidentally introduced into the Bahamas in the 1970s and spread to Florida by 1982. Its stronghold in North America is still the Gulf Coast, but it is now easily found as far south as Veracruz, as far west as California, and as far north as British Columbia and the great lakes.
Its impact on native species is as of yet unknown; it appears to occupy an ecological niche between that of the Mourning dove and Rock pigeon ; some have suggested that its spread represents exploitation of a niche made available by the extinction of the Passenger pigeon.
It breeds wherever there are trees for nesting, laying two white eggs in a stick nest. Incubation lasts 14-18 days, and yound fledge after 15-19 days. It is not wary and is often found around human habitation.
This is a small dove, buff grey with a darker back and a blue-grey wing patch. The tail feathers are tipped white. It has a black half-collar on its nape from which it gets its name. The short legs are red and the bill is black. The eye is reddish/brown. From a distance the eyes appear to be black, as the pupil is relatively large and only a narrow rim of reddish-brown eye colour can be seen around the black pupil
This is a gregarious species, and sizeable winter flocks will form where there are food supplies such as grain. The song is acoocoo, coo repeated many times. This tune, to the Greek ear, sounds like pronouncing the word 'decaocto' which means the number "eighteen", to which the bird owes its name. Occasionally it also makes a harsh loud mechanical sounding call lasting about 2 seconds particularly when landing in the summer.
The Eurasian Collared Dove is one of two species (the other, and the more likely, being the African Collared Dove, Streptopelia roseogrisea) that have been argued to be the wild ancestor of the domestic Barbary Dove, S. risoria. It is able to interbreed with the Barbary Dove.
Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Collared_Dove

## Post 2 by nikos (English words from a Greek thinking brain) on Tuesday, 08-Aug-2006 15:28:11

At the following address you can find a sound of the collared dove.
http://www.gardensafari.net/sounds/ttortel.mp3
Nikos