Eurasian collared doves spotted

A new bird has appeared in Sisters that could end up being another alien pest, like the European starlings, house (English) sparrows and wild turkeys.

Levi Rowe, of Sisters, reported that he and his uncle, Kalin Emrich, discovered what they believe are Eurasian collared doves behind Depot Café.

"At first we didn't take much notice to them thinking they were (just) mourning doves," Rowe said. "However one morning one of them flew close enough so that we could make out a half 'collar;' mourning doves only have spots. Also these doves were much bigger than the mourning dove. So far we have seen an estimated four or five at a time."

Their report fits into other observations throughout Oregon and the West.

On June 4, 2007, a birder who was teaching at Linfield College was returning from a weekend in Wallowa County and observed two collared doves perched on a power-line beside the post office in the town of Imbler.

He had this to say: "Good looking birds, but I'm wondering... are they finding an unoccupied niche in the ecosystem, or will they eventually be competing with mourning doves or someone else?"

The Eurasian collared dove, Streptopelia decaocto, is one of the great colonizers of the avian world. Its original range was warmer regions from southeastern Europe to Japan. However, by 1953 it was expanding across Europe as far as Great Britain, breeding in Britain for the first time in 1956, and Ireland soon after.

It is now a resident species as far north as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia.

It is not migratory.

It was accidently introduced into the Bahamas in the 1970s, when a few of them escaped from a cage, and spread to Florida by 1982. Its stronghold in North America is still the Gulf Coast, but they are now found as far south as Veracruz, west to California, north to British Columbia, the Great Lakes, and Central Saskatchewan.

Its impact on native species is as yet unknown, as it appears to occupy an ecological niche between that of the mourning dove and rock pigeon, the latter another escapee and now feral nationwide.

Collared doves are buff grey with a darker back and a blue-grey underwing patch, and substantially larger than the mourning dove. The tail feathers are tipped white, and it has a black half-collar on its nape, hence its name. The short legs are red and the bill is black.

The collared dove's call is a coo-coo, coo, repeated many times.