Doves launch a coo to find love
Mournful birdsong drifting over suburban rooftops offers a clue to the origins of one of Greek mythology’s most touching stories.
Collared doves are said to be the spirit of a servant girl called Decaocto, who was turned into a bird by the gods to free her from a pitiful existence.
The dove’s scientific name of Streptopelia decaocto loosely translates as “bird with a neck chain”. Decaocto is also the Greek word for 18, the paltry number of coins the servant girl was paid each year.
As spring approaches, the collared dove’s dawn love song can be heard from lofty perches – TV aerials are a favourite – long into the day. Listen carefully and you can hear each verse delivered in 18 distinctive coos, another nod to the legend of Decaocto.
Preparing for the RSPB’s recent Big Garden Birdwatch (BGB), I was delighted to see how a flock of eight collared doves had taken to scavenging our feeder seed sent tumbling to the ground by house sparrows and starlings.
At one point, the collared doves formed two rows equally spaced apart and strolled across the garden. Not so much line dancing as lawn dancing.
Watching the doves squabble and dash regularly into the hawthorn hedge, their wings making a loud, whirring wing-whistle, became compulsive viewing.
However, one morning I looked out to see feathers in the middle of the garden. The flock of eight doves had been reduced to seven by a sparrowhawk.
Sparrowhawk attacks, along with the parasitic disease trichomonosis, may be why collared dove numbers vary so dramatically. Although the BGB statistics reveal a 200% increase since the count began in 1979, over the past decade sightings have fallen by almost a third.
Expecting to tally seven birds when I took part in the BGB, I was delighted to look out and see that a new bird had joined the flock – no doubt attracted by one of the male birds singing its tribute to Decaocto.
Collared doves are said to be the spirit of a girl freed by the gods