The Campus Collared Doves

The image above, although not entirely clear, shows one of the UEA campus' wildlife residents. The Eurasian Collared Dove is one of the UEA's less secretive residents, with the birds being seen most days at any location across campus. And these birds, I think are rather lovely.

The Collared Dove is part of the Class Aves, the Order Columbiformes and the Family Columbidae.

Collared Doves may also be known by their Latin name Streptopelia decaocto. The first part "strepto" comes from the Greek meaning "collar", and "peleia" meaning dove. The second part of the Latin name harks back to Greek folklore and myth, about a girl who complained about her low wages. "Decaocto" means eighteen pieces, and so in the Greek myth, it goes that the dove was created from the girl by the Gods, to shame the girl's mistress. The girl in dove form still cries to this day.

These doves are a pale brown-grey colour and they have a distinctive black collar, from which they gain their name. They are around 30-35cm in length, and weigh about 160-250g. Figures from the RSPB suggest that there are approximately 990,000 breeding pairs of Collared Doves in the UK. These birds can be seen anywhere in the UK, in gardens, in city centre parks, and even in universities! When walking across campus or walking across the grass by the lake, it is not unusual to hear the unmistakeable cooing of the collared doves. The voice of these birds sounds like a "coo-Coo-coo", and I've heard it especially at dawn or dusk. The Collared Doves will eat mainly cereals and seeds, along with berries and small invertebrates. These birds are frequent visitors to gardens and parks, and welcome offerings of bread and cereals, as the one above demonstrates.

Although their UK population isn't endangered, their population has been declining since 2005. The cause for this is potentially because of an increase in Wood Pigeon populations, with whom Collared Doves compete for resources, or in the spread of the parasite Trichomonas gallinae.

An interesting fact to note about these doves, is that they are a fairly new resident of Britain. No Collared Doves bred in the UK before 1955, when the first pair bred in Norfolk! Up to the 1930's, they were confined to ranges in Turkey and the Balkans, and within 20 years they had spread further north and west, to places such as the UK. They are generally found in pairs or alone, but have been known to form larger flocks. At UEA, I saw five altogether feeding, and 2 juveniles recently sitting quite politely on a fence close to the crowds of students, and they were seemingly unafraid and did not move.