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Species › Birds

Eurasian Collared Dove

Streptopelia decaocto

Order
Columbiformes
Family
Columbidae
Presence in the Strait
Resident
Abundance
common
IUCN (global)
LC · Least concern
In Spanish
Tórtola turca

Photograph: Iruka, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist

Length
31–33 cm
Wingspan
47–55 cm
Weight
200 g
0204060LENGTH31–33 cmWINGSPAN47–55 cmcentimetres

Presence in the Strait

Common resident in inhabited areas. Recent colonisation and expansion. First observations were of four birds on 28.10.87 in the River Guadiaro estuary and one bird on 5.09.89 in the Barbate pine forests. From 1990 they have been seen in many places increasingly, reaching Ceuta in 1995.

Identification

Similar to a Turtle Dove, with plain greyish-brown upperparts, more slender, a longer tail and a black collar, absent in juveniles.

Movements

Sedentary with post-breeding dispersal. They form winter groups. Their origins are in Asia from where they started to expand at the beginning of the 20th Century towards the N and W of Europe, through the Balkans to Hungary (1930), former Czechoslovakia (1936), Austria (1938), Germany (1943), Holland (1947), Denmark (1948), France (1950), United Kingdom (1955) and the Iberian Peninsula: North (1974), Central (1980) and Strait of Gibraltar (1990).

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Gallery

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.