On the 2nd Day of Christmas my true love sent to me … two turtle doves
Turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur) have been used as a symbol of love and devotion at Christmas and throughout history. Their loyal pairing, preening each other and displaying, evoked a spiritual belief, held in the hearts of those with sons and husbands gone to war, that their beloved will return. While in Spain, very young amorous lovers are known as “dos tortolitos” – two turtle doves.
Today turtle doves are too rare for such a Christmas gift. The bird has been on the Red List in the UK since 1996. It is the fastest declining bird species because of hunting, predation and habitat loss. Its numbers plummeted by 98% in the UK between 1995 and 2023.
In spite of international conservation work, and some improvement, this migratory bird still needs urgent action.
Working to increase numbers
Every year the turtle dove flies from sub-Saharan Africa across Europe to breed in the UK and other northern European countries in summer. It may fly up to 3,000 miles each way. Graham Denny, a Suffolk farmer and conservationist who has ringed turtle doves since 2004, told East Anglia Bylines of a male dove which left the UK in late summer, was tracked for 10 days flying over France during the night, rested in Portugal for a few days, then flew overnight across Gibraltar and down the Senegal river into Africa, where its radio tracker was lost. It returned to the UK the following year, identified by its ring.
Crossing Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Malta, Romania, Cyprus, France, Portugal and Spain, turtle doves have been shot for sport. An RSPB-led international conservation action plan resulted in an EU hunting ban in France, Spain and Portugal. Since 2021 the population has increased by over 30%. But the EU has now lifted the ban.
In the UK the turtle dove has not been hunted for hundreds of years, so it is not hunting that is undermining the bird’s recovery but habitat loss, says Denny. “Turtle doves are the worst nest builders, they throw together six or seven sticks as if playing KerPlunk,” he says. “Repeated mechanised cutting and thinning of mature hedgerows, brambles, old man’s beard that support and hide their fragile nests, the destruction of habitat for housing and our obsession to remove anything overgrown – all this reduces viable nesting sites.”
Denny explains that losses are exacerbated by the increase in predatory corvids, sparrowhawks and grey squirrels and a lack of “constructive pest control”. When alternative berry food supplies are limited, they will eat the dove’s eggs. Unlike the woodpigeon or the collared dove, the gentle turtle dove does not defend its nest.
Conservation works
The turtle dove is smaller and darker than the collared dove – slightly larger than a blackbird. Its upper parts are distinctively mottled with chestnut and black, and its black tail has a white edge. It is the UK’s only migratory dove, easily recognised by its orangey-brown and black patterned back. Thanks to the work of farmers including Denny, landowners, and conservation advisors as part of Operation Turtle Dove, their soft “turr-turr” song can now be heard in small pockets of East Anglia and southern England.
The RSPB reports that conservation has resulted in a 9% increase in turtle dove numbers in the past year. Volunteers plays a crucial role in the monitoring programme, meticulously checking recorded footage for signs of doves. Turtle doves have been seen at 23 of the 78 sites with trail cameras. Whether they are breeding is, however, in question. But the conservation work of landowners and farmers is improving the future of 28 other threatened species – red-listed and amber-listed farmland birds such as corn bunting, greenfinch, linnet, yellowhammer and stock dove.
Denny emphasises the importance of providing habitat. One turtle dove, he says, returned to the UK year on year for 18 years. “For numbers to rise, the returning turtle doves must have a safe place to nest. If there is no breeding ground or control of their predators, there are no new chicks. And the species will be doomed.” In the turtle dove’s case, it is not location, location, location that’s so important, he argues, but protection, protection, protection.
The future
The RSPB is hopeful that more birds continue to reach our shores and breed in future years. “Ten years ago, the prospects for turtle doves looked bleak: plummeting populations and little sign of being able to fix either their breeding habitats or very high and clearly unsustainable levels of hunting,” says Rick Bayne, RSPB’s senior project manager for Operation Turtle Dove. Through collaboration, focus, and persistence the hope is for a more optimistic future.
So come spring and summer, when you are out with your one true love, you may just hear their “turr-turr” call. In the meantime, when you are working in the garden or fields, think habitat, habitat, habitat. Then just maybe, as in the Christmas carol, the two doves in your neighbourhood could become 22 or more over a few seasons…
To find out more about how you can help turtle doves, visit: rspb.org.uk/turtledoves
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