Today, any turtle dove deserves an extra-hard look. Not long ago European Turtle Dove was a common and familiar component of our summer countryside. Sadly, those days are gone and, for many of us, an encounter with one is now a rare and special event, something to be savoured and treasured.
But there are other reasons to look more closely at turtle doves. In summer, any British turtle dove is still odds-on a European but, particularly in late autumn and winter, there are other options.
Oriental Turtle Dove has two distinct migratory northern subspecies, meena and orientalis, both of which have reached Britain as vagrants. Indeed, with British records of the two forms in the last few years, the hardened twitcher may well have as much recent experience of vagrant turtle doves as European ones – a truly astonishing and shocking state of affairs.
Status
European Turtle Dove was once common and widespread across southern England. However, the combination of habitat change in both its breeding and wintering areas and wholesale slaughter on its migration routes has brought about what is probably the steepest decline of any British bird species.
Those few which make it back to Britain each year are now the merest fraction of former numbers. It remains a summer visitor, arriving mainly in May and departing by September. Out-of-season records are not unknown, however, even in mid-winter.
Orientalis Oriental Turtle Dove, the far eastern counterpart of European Turtle Dove, breeds across central Siberia and north-eastern Asia and winters in South-East Asia. Four proven turtle doves of this subspecies have been recorded in Britain: at Scarborough, North Yorkshire, on 23 October 1889, Castle Rising, Norfolk, on 29 January 1946, on Fair Isle, Shetland, from 31 October-1 November 1974 and, most recently, in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, from 15 December 2010 intermittently until 9 May 2011.
The bird ‘in the middle’ is the meena subspecies of Oriental Turtle Dove, which is now often regarded as a species in its own right. Whatever the merits of the taxonomic arguments, however, it is a distinctive, identifiable form.
This form breeds west from western Siberia as far as the eastern border of the Western Palearctic. It, too, is a longdistance migrant, wintering in southern Asia and, like its eastern counterpart, it is a vagrant to Europe, also in late autumn and winter. Three individuals of this form have reached Britain: at Spurn, East Yorkshire, on 8 November 1975, Stromness, Orkney, from 20 November-20 December 2002, and Hill of Rattar and St John’s Brough, Highland, from 5 December 2003-24 March 2004. To complete the picture, two further Oriental Turtle Doves, either orientalis or meena, have also been
recorded: on St Agnes, Scilly, on 2nd-3rd and 6 May 1960 and at Portmahomack, Highland, on 9 November 2002. Spring vagrants are clearly possible.
Identifying turtle doves
The first thing to do with any unidentified turtle dove is to age it. Juveniles show relatively weakly marked dark centres to the mantle, scapulars and wing coverts and also lack the characteristic neck-bars. The upperparts therefore lack very strong contrasts.
Following the post-juvenile moult, birds gain an adult plumage in which the centres to the upperpart feathers are broader, darker and more sharply defined, while the f ringes are brighter. The neck-bars also appear at this time.
It is important to take note of the following characters.
Size and structure
How big is the bird? Is it smaller than a Collared Dove, about the same size or bigger, more like a Stock Dove or a Feral Rock Dove? Is it small, slim and delicate with a long rear end and a long primary projection, or is it more heavy and thickset, shorter at the back end, with a shortish tail and a short primary projection? Does it look heavy, broad and round winged and ponderous in flight, or slim and fast with more pointed wing-tips and a rapid, ‘flicking’ wing action?
Upperparts
Do any juvenile feathers have very thin, weakly marked centres, or are the centres more solidly dark, giving a more scaly appearance? Do any adult feathers have fairly narrow pointed dark centres and very bright orange fringes, or are they more broadly dark centred with narrow deep ginger fringes? At any age, do the pale tips to the wing coverts align in rows to form prominent curved wing-bars?
Head and neck
If the neck patch is present, is it small, black and white with only three or four dark bars, or is it larger, more black and grey with four to six dark bars? Is there an elliptical patch of bare bluey-pink skin around the eye? Does the nape contrast with the crown or the mantle?
Underparts
Are the underparts pale pinky-buff with an extensive white belly, or are they darker pinky-brown with a more restricted white belly? Are the undertail coverts grey or white?
Rump and tail
Is the rump grey or brown? Are the sides and tip to the tail bright white or a soft grey? Is there any dark smudgy mark on the outer web of the outermost tail feather?
THREE: Oriental Turtle Dove of the form meena (Friesland, The Netherlands, 11 February 2010). This looks a rather fat, heavy bird, although it is fluffed up against the Dutch winter cold. Also striking is the truncated rear end and short primary projection, but most eyecatching of all is the upperparts pattern. The feathers are solidly dark centred with blunt tips and, as a result, the ginger (not vivid orange) pale feather tips are relatively narrow. Furthermore, the tips to the wing coverts are paler and align in rows. Also obvious is a clear grey rump.
While obviously not a European Turtle Dove, separating meena and orientalis from single photographs, with no tail sides visible, can be problematic.
TWO: European Turtle Dove (Pusztaszer, Hungary, 31 May 2006). This European Turtle Dove looks typically small, slender and petite, with a long back end and very long primaries. As in photo one, the bright orange fringes to the mantle, scapulars and wing coverts almost completely overwhelm the thin, sharply pointed dark feather centres. The white belly is somewhat concealed in shadow, but the blackand-white neck patch and pink skin around the eye are clear enough and the crown and nape are concolorous. Also visible here is a neat bright white edge to the tail.
FOUR: Oriental Turtle Dove of the form orientalis (Tokyo, Japan, 3 March 2007). This bird looks plump with a structure more reminiscent of a pigeon than a European Turtle Dove. The overall plumage tones are dark, especially the underparts which are a cloudy pinky-grey right to the vent, indicating orientalis rather than meena Oriental Turtle Dove. The dark centres to the upperpart feathers are broad and blunt tipped and the pale feather tips on the wing coverts form wing-bars. Although difficult to see, the pale bars in the neck patch look grey rather than white. Finally, there is no bare patch of skin around the eye and a brown nape contrasts with the grey crown.
SIX: Oriental Turtle Dove of the form meena (Uttaranchal, India, 3 June 2003). Although a relatively slim-looking bird, there is a certain ‘heaviness’ visible here, and with a shortlooking primary projection, broad, blunt-tipped dark centres to the mantle, scapulars and wing coverts and pale feather tips aligning clearly in rows on the wing coverts, there is ample evidence that this is not a European Turtle Dove. Other confirmatory features include grey hues in the rump, grey in the neck-bars and an apparent lack of bare skin around the eye. The bird’s relative slimness is a clue that this is a meena rather than an orientalis Oriental Turtle Dove.
FIVE: European Turtle Dove (Oualidia, Morocco, 1 May 2009). This is a straightforward European Turtle Dove – slim, small and elegant, long winged and long tailed and with a strikingly brown rump. The upperparts are bright orange with narrow feather centres forming sharp points, there is no hint of any wing-bars on the wing coverts, the neck patch is very crisply black and white, there is a prominent patch of bare skin around the eye and there is no contrast at all between the nape and the crown.
SEVEN: Oriental Turtle Dove of the form orientalis (Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, 15 April 2011). This much-admired individual looks chunky and dark, but most of all it looks really scaly above. The dark feather centres are broad, the pale feather tips are ginger and those on the wing coverts are much paler and form very prominent crisp wing-bars. Other readily apparent features are the extensively blue-grey rump, the lack of bare skin around the eye and a noticeably brown nape which contrasts with the grey fore-crown.
NINE: Oriental Turtle Dove of the form meena (Almaty, Kazakhstan, 26 May 2012). This portrait shows a heavy-bodied, rather shorttailed dove with just a hint of a blue-grey rump. The upperparts patterning is beautifully defined and the pale wing-bars on the wing coverts are also evident. The deep pink-grey underparts can be seen here extending onto the belly, but the tip and sides to the tail are white, indicating meena. Other features readily eliminating European Turtle Dove are the grey hues in the neck-bars and the absence of a patch of bare skin around the eye.
EIGHT: European Turtle Dove (St Mary’s, Scilly, 8 October 2003). Though slightly scruffy, this bird still shows more than enough features to identify it as a European Turtle Dove. It looks slender and long tailed, and its primary projection is long and slim. It is also just about possible to discern some bright white in the sides of the tail. Reassuringly, the upperparts are also very bright orange with reduced dark feather centres, the neck-bars look nicely black and white and the bare patch around the eye is also obvious.
TEN: Oriental Turtle Dove of the form orientalis (Huksan Do, South Korea, 28 September 2006). This is a typically fat and plump pigeon-like dove with a short primary projection. However, as with all the birds featured here, its true size cannot really be determined in a photograph.
Its underparts are very dark pink-grey and there is no discernable paleness on the vent, suggesting orientalis rather than meena. The neck sides have grey tones, the nape is brown and the upperparts show the classic ‘nonEuropean Turtle Dove’ pattern. Interestingly, this bird, like the meena in photo three, also shows some bare skin around the eye. Caution is clearly required with this feature.
ELEVEN: Juvenile European Turtle Dove (St Mary’s, Scilly, 8 October 2004). This juvenile shows very weakly marked centres to the upperpart feathers, little more than dark shaft streaks (though note the typically adult feathers starting to appear in the lesser coverts). The overall effect is therefore very plain and uniform. There are, of course, no neck-bars to look at, but we can still note the patch of bare skin around the eye and the strong contrast between a pale pink breast and a white belly. Most telling of all, however, is this bird’s structure. It is slim and elongated, and both the tail and the primary projection are long.
TWELVE: Immature Oriental Turtle Dove of the form meena (Ladakh, India, 12 July 2012). Note the differences in the upperparts patterning between this and the previous bird. Though also largely juvenile, this bird shows a more scaly pattern, as the feather centres are darker and more solid. The grey in the neck-bars and lack of eye patch also indicate that this is no European Turtle Dove, but the pale vent and white tail sides visible in this image are strong pointers to meena rather than orientalis.