# Ring neck Doves



## fsbirdhouse

In the last two years a new dove I've never seen before has moved into Eastern Idaho, and in pretty good numbers in places.
It's called the Ring neck dove, and it's big and has a very strange squawking call along with regular dove sounds.
It's size is between that of a Morning dove and a pidgeon, leaning toward the pidgeon!
It had a black ring 3/4 0f the way around it's neck (Not on back) and it glides like a pheasant a lot of the time.
It seems to prefere living in the trees of peoples yards, but seldom in the fields.
Anybody else seen these birds, and have they JUST arrived in your location too?


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## tlr

Could these doves be the same ones that we have been seeing here in the Dakotas. I think that they are aEuraisan Collared dove. We even had some winter here in Bismarck this year. They are a pretty bird and the call is different than a Mourning Dove. At times they give a call that is like a loud RRRRR sound and if you hear it once you won't forget it. The neck band on this bird you describe makes me believe tha it is the same bird.


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## fsbirdhouse

Sounds like the same bird.
Idaho F&G call them a ring neck, which they do match picture in WIKI.
But could be same bird by any other name.
Have you talked to anybody who has bagged one? Do they eat well?
They are so tame here I'm not sure I'd feel right killing one.
'Course now....if they're tasty....?


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## tlr

Our Game and Fish call the Eurasian Collared doves and they are fair game during the regular dove season. According to G&F they ahve been making ND a permanent home now and the population aof birds have been growing and spreding in the state.


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## fsbirdhouse

These doves are the toughest by far. They stay till the snow flies, and then return well before it has melted.
A Morning dove would perish in just one night of what these birds can tolerate.
However, some years ago I saw what I thought was a group of Morning doves still moving around the area in late Nov.
They were bigger than the average Morning dove, but I wrote that off as them being more heavily feathered later in the year.
Now I wonder if they not these Ring Necked/Eurasian doves, or there actually may be a subspiecies of larger Morning doves as well?
What I remember seeing really didn't look like the Eurasian doves.


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## drjongy

From ND OUTDOORS

In the last few years you may have noticed
odd looking doves perched in your yard, zipping
by a window, or even chasing grackles
away from bird feeders.While many in North
Dakota have reported these birds as ringed
turtle doves, which actually are domesticated
escapees, the new "magnum" sized doves are
Eurasian collared doves.
Eurasian collared doves were accidentally
introduced in the Bahamas in the mid-1970s
when about 50 of the birds escaped from a
pet trader. The birds soon spread northward,
and by the early 1980s had established a
breeding population in Florida. The birds are
known for their prodigious ability to invade
and colonize new areas and have no known
constraints on dispersal.
In the 1930s, their European range was
limited to the Balkans and Turkey.However,
by the mid-1950s, Eurasian collared doves
had colonized most of Europe and reached
as far north as the British Isles.Within 10
years, their abundance had exceeded that of
native turtledoves.
The dispersal strategy of Eurasian collared
doves could be classified as leapfrogging,
where birds may disperse several hundred
miles in a single movement and then backfill
areas previously skipped.Urban areas generally
are colonized first, followed by rural
areas.
The first sightings of Eurasian collared
doves in North Dakota were in the late 1990s,
but reports of these birds are increasing,
especially south of Interstate 94. In mid-
August, I saw 27 in Burleigh County. There
were young birds in the group, evidence that
Eurasian collared doves are reproducing in
North Dakota.
Differentiating Eurasian collared doves
from native mourning doves is straight-
forward. The newcomers are about halfagain
the size of mourning doves and are
more robust. Eurasian collared doves are also
considerably lighter in color, have a more
squared-off tail, and sport a thin black ring
on their neck.
Their calls also differ in that Eurasian collared
doves have a monotonous call (koo-
KOO-kook) that is repeated upward of 12
times,whereas mourning doves have a low,
mournful (coo-oo OO OO OO) call. Eurasian
collared doves also use an excitement or
alighting call (hwaah) that is harsh and
nasally, which is often given as birds alight,
or when males chase other birds from their
territories.
North Dakota is on the northern edge of
the expansion zone inhabited by Eurasian
collared doves, but there have been cases of
birds breeding in the state. Because they are
new arrivals, Eurasian collared doves are not
as widespread or found in concentrations
seen in some southern states, although they
are seen regularly in some areas.
Given that Eurasian collared doves are an
exotic with unknown consequences to other
species, most states employ some form of
bag limit, sometimes separately or in aggregate,
with other dove species. In North
Dakota, Eurasian collared doves shot in fall
will simply be a part of the hunter's daily
dove bag limit.
While effects of Eurasian collared doves on
native mourning doves are unknown, one
thing is for sure, these birds are not going
away anytime soon.Will these new "magnum"
doves out-compete less aggressive
native mourning doves, or will they simply
fill an available niche - perhaps the one
vacated by the now extinct passenger
pigeon? Only time will tell.


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## fsbirdhouse

Hey! Thanks for the info about the Eurasian doves.
The ones I'm seeing here look almost twice as big as the Mourning doves.


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## Bob Aronsohn

I've shot the Eurasian Doves in Zambia and in South Africa. They also have Red Eye Doves, and Laughing Doves. In South America they have a dove that is almost a dead ringer for our Turtle Dove here in the USA, it's called an Eared Dove.

Bob Aronsohn


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## fsbirdhouse

Bob Aronsohn,
So how is this dove for eating?
No one has said.


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## Bob Aronsohn

Hello FSB,

If you are refering to the Eurasian Doves some of the folks I have talked to say they do not taste as good as our Turtle Doves in the USA. But this is only there opinion.

Bob A.


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## fsbirdhouse

I guess I was mistaken about the gap in these doves ring neck.
The gap is in the front not back.
Wiki identifies this bird as both the ring necked dove, and the eurasian collared dove.
Same bird by the pictures.
Cool.
I like Eurasian collared dove better.
Sounds exotic.


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## scalemom

The pesky things have appeared in Western Nevada south of Reno, also. Hope they don't become a problem like pidgeons have.


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## piesman

We have them in The Bahamas also. They multiply pretty quick, and are good eating also.


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## fsbirdhouse

Piesman hit the nail on the head about these birds multiplying quickly.
Here it is Feb 9, 2010, snowing, and there's a group of about 15 Eurasian collared dove feeding on the seeds from last falls apples at the back of my property. 
Two years ago there were two such doves in the neighborhood. Last year there were maybe 10 or 12. Now they are absolutely everywhere.
They are actually increasing their numbers thru the middle of winter, and hanging out.
This increase can't be from local mating pairs in the winter, so must be due to migration.
North in the winter? Doves?
Wonder what Spring will bring?


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## DuckerIL

Shot one or two over the last two seasons here in Cental Illinois...... as far as table fare, not sure as they were breasted and grilled with the rest of the morning doves. Must not been a noticable difference when we ate them as nobody commented.


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## INhonker1

I have a funny collared dove story. There was a farm that I had hunted on and off throughout high school for various things that just so happened to have about 20 canada geese going into an hay field. So...as a common courtesy...I swung into to the barn yard the following afternoon to be sure that the farmer still didnt mind us hunting geese. I got out and shot the usual small talk and asked him "hey...do you mind if we set up in the hay across the road for geese...there were 20 or so in there last night?" To which he replied....."You got your guns in the truck? I ll tell ya what....I ll let ya shoot whatever the hell ya want...shoot one of my dairy cows for all I care...as long as you shoot THOSE damn things up there on the powerlines. Damn things showed up a week ago and have been driving me NUTS ever since with that racket they make!!!" So, my buddy proceeded to load a 12 ga with some steel shot and flush them off the lines. At this point of course....no one knew exactly what the heck they were. Looked like some kind of pigeon dove cross breed....maybe something that had escaped the county fair. One flew towards the neighbors...one flew over the calf lot. That one ended up falling into the calf lot to which the farmer said "I ll be damned....well ya only shot one of em so your only shooting geese." :lol: LOL!!!!!! Anyway, we took the bird home and looked it up.....Eurasian collared dove. FYI this all happened in NW Indiana.

INhonker1


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## wburns

I had two pair stay at my place in Linton all last winter. They made it all the way through to summer when I moved. They sure were some tough birds. I actually enjoyed having them around. They seemed to get along with the mourning doves that feed at my feeders.


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## fsbirdhouse

Actually, we can shoot these birds all year as there is no closed season in Idaho.
I'm not sure I want to now tho, as they're are so tame, they actually glide by just over our heads as tho they want our company close by. They don't seem to compete with the mourning doves at all, tho their paths cross in our yard all the time.
It can the that in the future these birds could easily come to out number the mournings, and there are lot's of them around still.


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## gvilledae

Hi, We live in Grangeville, Idaho and just yesterday morning my husband noticed a different bird. He said it looked like a dove but was bigger, sounded like a dove but different. He figured it was a dove but didn't know what kind. We only saw about 3 but this morning there were more. He took some pictures and I started doing some research which led me to this site. I believe the ring neck dove is what we are seeing. My husband talked to a F&G guy who told us they hadn't seen any yet but that they started showing up in south Idaho. Interesting.


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## fsbirdhouse

I now have well over 25 collared doves feeding on a regular basis in my backyard, but I expect the number to drop as the snow is melting rapidly now, and more ground is opening up for them in other locations.
I live within a hundred yards of the Snake river, and night and day all I hear are Honkers and Collared doves.
Glad the doves aren't Peacocks! The doves are noisy enough.


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