Eurasian Collared-Dove

True to their name, the Eurasian Collared-Dove displays a collar boldest on their hindnecks. Over time, they have been extensively domesticated, and their species have adapted to human life. Their original range lies in the Indian Subcontinent.

About Eurasian Collared-Doves

They are considered an invasive species and can colonize territories that were previously inhabited by meeker species of birds. They can also carry disease-causing parasites that can harm native Pigeon or Dove populations. In this blog, you will learn:

● Eurasian Collared-Dove Photos, Color Pattern, Song
● Eurasian Collared-Dove Size, Eating behavior, Habitat
● Eurasian Collared-Dove Range and Migration, Nesting

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Eurasian Collared-Dove Color Pattern

Adult Eurasian Collared-Doves have a wash of sandy gray all over their bodies. They have a pinkish tinge to their heads and breasts, and you can notice it if you study them closely and in adequate lighting. They have narrow black collars on their hindnecks that have thin white edgings. Their gray “wrist” feathers present on their wings are visible when they are in flight, and they have dark brown flight feathers. They have gray under-tail coverts, and the undersurface of their tails is easily visible during displays involving a flight or when they alight.

They have black bills, deep red irises, and mauve or red legs and feet. The sexes are similar in plumage throughout the year. Juveniles also have a similar color pattern, but you can identify them by the pale reddish margins on their breast, wing, and back feathers. They lack complete collars on their hindnecks until they grow to 3 months of age. Juvenile birds have brown irises and brownish-red feet. There is also a cream-colored morph of this species, that is naturally occurring. Eurasian Collared-Doves hybridize with species such as the Ringed Turtle-Dove, which explains the high degree of variation in their plumages.

Description and Identification

These birds can be easily confused for African Collared-Doves on account of their behavior and size. Both of these species of Collared-Doves have been domesticated and kept in cages, and they also try to escape frequently. However, their color palettes are quite different from each other.

There have been several reported hybrids between the Eurasian Collared-Doves and Ringed Turtle-Doves, making it difficult for us to distinguish the hybrids from the latter species, especially in wildlife settings. We can distinguish Eurasian Collared-Doves from Ringed Turtle-Doves by taking note of their vent feathers, the former has gray vent feathers, whereas the latter has white. The undersurfaces of the outermost rectrices are black for the Eurasian Collared-Dove, which can be different in hybrids and Ringed Turtle-Doves. Eurasian Collared-Doves also have a distinct call with three notes, whereas Ringed Turtle-Doves have a call of two notes. Hybrids often have a combination of the two calls.

These birds can also be mixed up with several other species of Doves, including White-winged Doves, Mourning Doves, Zenaida Doves, and Spotted Doves. This is usually due to their size and build. Unlike White-winged Doves, Eurasian Collared-Doves have a distinct black collar and lack the white patches on their wings that are present in their friends. To distinguish Eurasian Collared-Doves from Mourning and Zenaida Doves, remember that the latter two species lack the black collar and squared tail that is distinct in the former. Spotted Doves have darker plumages black and white spots on their hindnecks.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Song

These Doves have a distinct song we call the advertising coo. It is a trisyllabic “koo-KOO-kook”, sort of a chevron sound with a heavy emphasis on the second syllable. The male repeats the coo anywhere from 3-12 times, sometimes up to 15 times. He lets out this noise from a high perch. They do this to defend their territory, especially during nesting season. The males use this during the initial stages of pairing, to attract their mate.

This call can be a higher frequency by females. They also emit the call with a lower vocal output. The females call with fewer repetitions of the “koo”, or with the alternative “bow-coo” noise. The males can also emit the “bow-coo” noise, similar in pattern and frequency to the advertising coo, but with a lower pitch, and a slower pace. Both sexes give out a Nesting Call, an Alighting Call (resembling “hwaaah”), and an affection call (a soft “huu” sound). They also have a warning call, which is a soft, nasal “gu” sound. Young Eurasian Collared-Doves beg for food from their parents with a shrill, feeble “weeep” sound.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Size

These birds are stocky and medium-sized. Their average length across sexes is 11.4-11.8 inches, and their average wingspan length is 4.9-6.3 ounces. Their average wingspan is 13.8 inches. There are minor variations that we observe depending on the subpopulations, nature of domesticity, and feeding habits. As these birds are commonly domesticated, their diets can vary.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Behavior

These birds walk similar to pigeons. Their gait involves walking along with tail movement and head bobbing. When the need arises, they run from one place to another.

Their courtship rituals can involve hopping onto the ground from higher surfaces. In situations where they have been alighted, they throw their tails up and then slowly lower them.

They are built to fly powerfully. Their flight is strong and direct, and they also produce frequent motions of clipped wing beats. They fall in a looping motion, glide, and dive towards the ground. Unlike other members of the Dove family like the Mourning Dove, they do not change their pace and altitude too often.

They do not swim or use the water surface as a crucial mode of locomotion, but there are occasional reports of them alighting on deepwater and advancing while flapping their wings. Following this, they fly away.

As for their self-care, they preen at all times of the day, and commonly accompany this with head shaking. We have reason to believe that they do this to get rid of dust and debris from their eyes. They also bathe in shallow water bodies like puddles, and also make use of the rain, both when it is falling and when the grass is damp.

Eurasian Collared-Doves roost together, in flocks. They like to do this, particularly in cooler months. The males defend their nest and territory from elevated surfaces, usually perching. They let out the advertising coo and perform aerial displays. They do this especially with intruders of the same species. The males may also perform the flight display when there is a female, a potential mate.

When a rival chances upon their territory, the adult male chases the individual after intimidating him through the display flight. He also lets out the warning call. Rivals advance towards each other by bowing their heads, swelling their necks, and dropping their wings. When a bird is submissive, they crouch down and invite allopreening by lowering their heads and ruffling their neck feathers.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Diet

These Doves have a diet consisting primarily of select berries and insects. There is scope for further research on their study in North America especially. We know that their populations in Europe feed on the discarded grains of crops cultivated in agriculture, and seeds of a wide variety of plants. They enjoy berries and small fruit, and occasionally snails. They can also feed on bread crumbs and other small morsels of human food that they come across.

Their foraging behavior is limited to walking on the ground surface to find surface-level food. In nonbreeding season, these birds forage in flocks. On occasion, they can flutter between branches and bushes to pick small fruit or berries.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Habitat

These birds gravitate towards open habitats within suburban areas. They also favor agricultural fields where the grain is plenty. Eurasian Collared-Doves rest and nest on trees, poles, and overhead wires. They also make do with other manmade structures for roosting and territorial defense and can build their nest on buildings. They have adapted to human civilization quite deftly.

Their original range is in India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and other parts of South Asia. Eurasian Collard-Doves prefer arid climates with scattered Acacia or other similar trees. They avoid city centers and moist tracts of land.

Range and Migration

These birds are resident birds and rarely migrate so to speak, but there have been observations of them moving altitudinally. We see these movements in the Himalayan ranges of Northern parts of India and Pakistan, where the Eurasian Collared-Doves move down to the lower ground. This usually happens during the November-March period. They may travel to Afghanistan in the summer. In the Spring, we have observed some movement by the birds in Israel. Their young disperse less than 300 kilometers from the hatching site, with a few instances of them moving beyond 400 kilometers. In general, this species moves to lower lying areas in the wintertime. They do not migrate across the sea, but they make movements across their home countries.

Eurasian Collared-Dove Lifecycle

The chicks enter the fledging stage after 18 days after hatching, on average. This is subject to a notable standard deviation value of 2. There have been instances of the chicks staying in their nests for up to 24 days, after which they gain independence at a week upon their initial fledging.

A juvenile female chick of about 8 weeks old, wing-shivering and begging an adult, presumably one of her parents for food. The young are fed through regurgitation. To feed the young, the parents allow their chicks to insert their beaks inside theirs. They then transfer the regurgitated food into the beaks of their young ones.

Nestlings eat crop milk which is a food that looks like cottage cheese. It is made from crop, and the adult female feeds her nestlings this substance within a few hours after they have hatched. They are fed by their mother up to 10 days following their hatching. Following this phase, they are fed seeds. After they have fledged the nest, they are attended to only by their fathers.

Nesting

The male of the adult pair shows his female counterpart potential nest sites and produces his nest call at each site. Between nest showings, the pair engage in intense allopreening, sitting close together and preening directly at their heads. When the female sees a site she deems suitable, she announces her acceptance by giving her own rendition of the nest call.

The building of the nest is done mostly by the female, while the male takes up the role of gathering the nest-building material. On his trip back to the nest site, the male gives out an exciting call to notify his mate that he has gathered material. On his arrival, he pushes the material under the female. The female frequently emits the nest call while she builds the nest. They usually engage in nest building during daylight hours, and the entire process can take anywhere from 1-3 days.

The nest itself is a flimsy platform built of twigs, stems, roots, and grasses. The use of feathers, wool, string, and wire have also been recorded, as these birds have adapted deftly to survival in urban settings.

These birds do often reuse their nests for rest or for the next brood. When preparing to reuse the nest cups, the pair relines the nest, making it bulkier. The renovation process, therefore, replaces the nest-building process of the first brood. Incubation begins with the laying of the second egg and can last up to 15 days.

Anatomy of a Eurasian Collared-Dove

These birds are smaller than Crows, but larger than Robins. They have plump bodies, with long tails and small heads. They are plump, hefty birds, larger than Mourning Doves.

Final Thoughts

These birds are fascinating creatures. To know them better, we can prioritize certain areas of their research. Firstly, they are considered invasive species, so we can learn more about their colonizing behavior. It would also be interesting to study their expansion patterns in Europe and North America.

Ornithology

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