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Eurasian Collared-Doves Expand
© Cliff Raby
In the Bahamas, in 1974, the Eurasian Collared-Dove escaped from captivity and began to breed in the wild. By the late 1970s, the doves had flown west and colonized southern Florida. As their numbers grew, the doves expanded into rural and suburban areas, moving quickly in a northwesterly direction from Florida on across the United States. Collared-Doves were spotted in Washington state by 2000, first near Spokane. By 2006, they were breeding in eastern Washington. In 2007, they may have bred west of the Cascades. Learn more on BirdWeb.org.
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Eurasian Collared-Doves Expand - Watch the Backyard!
Written by Bob Sundstrom
This is BirdNote!
[A bit of West Indian music; the sound of waves]
Today’s story begins in the Bahamas, about 100 miles offshore from south Florida. [A bit of West Indian music]
There, in 1974, a bird called the Eurasian Collared-Dove escaped from captivity and began to breed in the wild. [Eurasian Collared-Dove calling] Eurasian Collared-Doves, about the size of a slim city pigeon, are handsome, buffy-gray birds with a tidy black collar.
By the late 1970s, Eurasian Collared-Doves had flown west from the Bahamas and colonized southern Florida. [Eurasian Collared-Dove calling] As their numbers grew, the doves expanded into rural and suburban areas, moving quickly in a northwesterly direction from Florida on across the United States. Collared-Doves were spotted in Washington by 2000, first near Spokane. By 2006, they were breeding in eastern Washington. In 2007, they may have bred west of the Cascades. [Eurasian Collared-Dove calling]
This astoundingly rapid range expansion is actually the Eurasian Collared-Doves’ second big move of last hundred years. Earlier in the 20th Century, they spread from the Middle East all the way across Europe.
Writing in 1996, when the doves were just in the southeastern US, Kenn Kaufman observed: “If it spreads in North America as it did in Europe, the Eurasian Collared-Dove may soon be among our most familiar backyard birds.”
Keep an eye on your backyard. They’re on their way.
[Eurasian Collared-Dove calling]
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Call of the Eurasian Collared-Dove provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by A. Van den Berg.
Steel Drum music Sister Say Dance by The Toucans. Steel Drums: Old & New vol.2 2005. www.toucans.net
Ambient waves by Kessler Productions.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2007 Tune In to Nature.org
ID# 082107EUCDKPLU
Quotation p. 290 in: Kaufman, Kenn. Lives of North American Birds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
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