The Collared Dove

Date: 2014-10-30 14:12:57 | Category: Bird Watching | Author: David Cole
How about this for a major success story - in the mid 1950's a stranger arrived on our shores and has managed to establish a good breeding population without becoming a pest or damaging indigenous populations of similar birds.

Collared Dove



The Collared Dove is an elegant pigeon-like bird with a triple phrase 'coo'. Part of their success is the extended breeding season which extends from March to October - the picture is of a pair still enthusiastically courting on my West Sussex bird table - they lay 2-5 clutches of eggs during the season - normally numbering just two eggs which hatch after an incubation period of about two weeks. The young are fed initially on 'Crop Milk' which the adults secrete from their crops - it is rich in protein and fat and helps to produce fledglings which are ready to leave the nest in about three weeks from hatching.

The 'nest' is a bit of a joke - often being just a token collection of twigs from which eggs often escape and can be found on the ground - they are white, smooth and glossy, just over an inch long.

Our pair are enthusiastic about the seed mixes supplied by TWOOTZ and have visited the bird tables for the whole of this breeding season being followed in by the juveniles which lack the black collar.