Eurasian Collared-Dove Streptopelia decaocto Scientific name definitions

The hoo-HOOOO-hoo of the Eurasian Collared-Dove has become so commonplace in much of the Northern Hemisphere as to almost pass unnoticed, and yet few people recognize the amazing history of this species. From its original range, largely in India and nearby China, it has spread over much of the Northern Hemisphere in the last few centuries, with much of the expansion occurring in the last 100 years. Its Eurasian population stands at an estimated 40,000,000–75,000,000 individuals, with another 8,700,000 in the United States and Canada. Humans have aided their expansion through creation of open habitats that are favorable to the species and accidental or intentional release from captivity. For hundreds of years, the range of the Eurasian Collared-Dove did not extend west of the Balkans, but in the 1930s, it expanded rapidly across Europe, colonizing approximately 2,500,000 km² in the next 40 or so years. In a somewhat analogous event, North America (including the West Indies and Central America) was colonized largely as the result of around 50 birds escaping captivity in the Bahamas in the 1970s. Both of these range expansions started in a mostly northwesterly direction, somewhat irrespective of apparently suitable habitat, and both occurred via "jump" dispersal, with breeding populations establishing hundreds of kilometers from the main range, and then populations 'back-filling' the gap in range. Though human habitat alteration paved the way for these events, the abrupt onset of the expansion across Europe and the directional peculiarity in both Europe and North America suggest that a genetic mutation(s) may have been a catalyst.

The Eurasian Collared-Dove is associated with relatively open habitats with seeds to eat (especially grain and bird seed) and sites for nesting, roosting, and perching, such as large trees and wires strung between poles: in other words, suburban and agricultural lands. In North America, this habitat overlaps substantially with that of the Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) and, to a lesser degree, the White-winged Dove (Zenaida asiatica), raising concerns that the Eurasian Collared-Dove could negatively impact these species' populations, but these concerns may be unfounded.

When the Eurasian Collared-Dove was first described in 1838 (1 Frivaldszky, I. (1838). Natural history expedition to the Balkans. K. Magyar tudos Társaság Evkönyvi 3:156–184. Close ), it was confused with the "Ringed Turtle-Dove" (then named Barbary Dove, Columba risoria), and given the scientific name Columba risoria decaocto. The Eurasian Collared-Dove was later found to be distinct, and now bears the scientific name of Streptopelia decaocto, with "decaocto" being an onomatopoeic representation of its song. The Burmese Collared-Dove (Streptopelia xanthocycla), which is resident in Myanmar and a straggler east to southwestern China, was until recently considered a subspecies of Eurasian Collared-Dove, but clear differences in appearance (darker overall color, smaller size, prominent yellow orbital ring) and vocalizations have led to this taxon receiving full species status.