Collared Dove roost

[Odonate]

Perhaps I have spent the last 18 years being unobservant but today I saw something that I have never noticed before: A roost of 40+ Collared Doves. Is this normal? The roost was in Plymouth city centre and I am starting to wonder whether it is perhaps a city phenomenon? Anyone any ideas....

[Colin Key]

Hello Odonate,

When I left the U.K. twelve years or so ago I do not recall Collared Doves being a particular problem (where I have a house in a rather nice rural part of SE London in Blackheath which is rich in birdlife).

Here, in the Algrave, the population has exploded during that time. This species breeds all year round and is, I believe, capable of at least eight broods a year (normal brood number is 1 - 3 surviving fledglings). My neighbour has a large stand of pine trees on his land which houses a roost of approximately 300 birds every night throughout the year. The $hit is killing his lawn as well as the trees (and the volume of feathers makes it look like the site of an Olympic "pillow fight"), but it is the sound which really bugs me. My brother-in-law has a few in his garden in West Sussex and it was he who told me that these birds are continually saying "you bastard, you bastard".

Have a listen, and you will hear those words - it drives me crazy when I am working in the garden.

Colin :wideeyed:

[Phil.J]

We sometimes have a flock of between 20 and 30 in the garden, so I don't think it is unusual for the UK, I've seen them raising a brood as late as early December. What is amusing is that whatever the weather or time of year, the males are continually trying to mate with the females.
I think in another 20 years we will have wall-to-wall collared doves!

[MichaelF]

I think in another 20 years we will have wall-to-wall collared doves!They're rarer in northern England now than they were 20 years ago, going by numbers in past bird reports. Probably due to getting pushed out by ever-increasing numbers of urban Wood Pigeons - for every Collared Dove I see on my BTO Atlas tetrad counts, I see between 20-30 Wood Pigeons.