Eurasian collared dove
Streptopelia decaocto
— Where the name comes from
Streptopelia joins the Greek streptós, “collar”, and péleia, dove: the black half-collar on the nape. Decaocto is Greek for “eighteen”, and behind it lies a legend: a servant girl paid eighteen coins a year begged the gods to free her from her misery, and was turned into a dove that has repeated the number ever since. The call, in three syllables, really does sound like de-ka-ok-to.
— Facts
- Group
- Birds · Aves
- Order
- Pigeons and doves
- Habitat
- Villages, towns, farms, parks and gardens
- Range
- From Europe to India and China; introduced to North America
- Size
- 31–33 cm, wingspan 47–55 cm, 125–240 g
- Diet
- Seeds, grain, crumbs, berries
- Lifespan
- 3 years on average, over 10 the record
— Characteristics
- 01
It has a thin black half-collar on its neck.
- 02
It can nest in almost any month of the year, with many broods.
- 03
The male performs gliding display flights with his tail fanned.
— What sets it apart
It conquered Europe in a century, and its advance was followed almost year by year. At the start of the twentieth century it lived only in Turkey and the Balkans; in the 1930s it reached Hungary, in the 1940s Germany and Italy, in 1955 it settled in England, then Scandinavia and even Iceland. Nobody knows for certain what set it moving, perhaps a mutation that made it more inclined to disperse. In the 1970s some doves escaped in the Bahamas crossed to Florida, and today they cover almost the whole United States.
