Collared Doves are much neater birds than fat pigeons and very shy so these are awful photos through the window. They nearly always visit the garden in pairs.
My bird book says they are widespread and common in suburban gardens and farming areas. But have only been a British bird since arriving from south-east Europe in the 1950s. The thing to spot to know it's a collared dove is the black half collar around the neck. These are young birds as they lack the dark collar.
Turtle Doves are completely different and only summer visitors and white doves released at weddings are really variants of homing pigeons.
In my book "The Poetry of Birds" there is a poem dating from 1986 titled 'Listening to Collared Doves' by E.J. Scovell (1907 - 1999) but it's not very interesting and not about the doves at all!
Afternoon Sue! I’m sitting with a cup of tea watching an ‘Escape to the Country’ in beautiful Suffolk! Sadly it’s probably the closest I will get to visiting your beautiful part of the world. Have a nice day. JennyP
ReplyDeleteMy friend on the other side of the town has these in her garden all the time. She does feed her birds though so that is an attraction for them .
ReplyDeleteWe see the odd one or two but a couple of mornings ago I looked out saw 6 on a neighbour's tv aerial, which was a lovely surprise. I didn't know that they are incomers. Every day's a school day!
ReplyDeleteI love collared doves we used to have them in Essex. Untidy nest builders though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first encountered them, I thought my friend said "they are coloured doves". But she corrected me, and I thought she said"no,collard" which left me even more baffled. I was reading To Kill a Mockingbird, where people eat collard greens!! Finally I understood about the "collar' plumage. Every day's a school day as Tracy says
ReplyDeleteFor some , probably illogical, reason I dislike pigeons but quite like to see these doves.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
We had a pair of Collared Doves nesting in our garden back when I lived in Askam, in Cumbria. The first year they nested there it was lovely, then year after year they seemed to be getting more and more multi-generational, or maybe they just invited their friends to join them, and the hoo-hoo noise that they make used to drive me mad.
ReplyDeleteI love to hear the call of the mourning doves we have here.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally I see Morning Doves, and they have a very soft uniform off-white color. No collar. As they move about, they coo. No chirping or tweeting.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for comments today and yesterday!
ReplyDeleteI used a birdsong app back in the Summer, and was surprised to note we had amongst many other varieties of bird Collard Doves in our midst.
ReplyDeleteWe have Mourning Doves. They seem to congregate in the garden. It's fun to hear their coo-cooing.
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