Turtle Dove Streptopelia turtur

The Turtle Dove, Streptopelia turtur, is a small and exquisitely marked migratory dove belonging to the family Columbidae, and Britain’s fastest declining summer migrant. Adults are beautifully patterned – warm orange-brown and black scalloping on the wings, a delicate pink breast, and a distinctive black and white striped patch on the neck – and are the source of one of the most evocative sounds of the English summer: a deep, purring, soporific ‘turr-turr’ song that carries across sun-warmed hedgerows and scrubby field margins. Arriving from the Sahel in late May, the species is entirely dependent on weed-rich arable habitats providing open-structured nesting scrub and abundant small seeds. Suffolk is now one of the species’ last remaining British strongholds, making the county critical to its survival, and targeted conservation work here is of national importance. Image: © Johannes S. iNaturalist.

Find out more: RSPB, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, iNaturalist

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