Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) Expnasion in Nebraska: 1997-2003

Authors

Mark A. Brogie, Educational Service Unit #1Follow
W. Ross Silcock, Nebraska Game and Parks CommissionFollow

Date of this Version

3-2004

Citation

Brogie & Silcock, "Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) Expnasion in Nebraska: 1997-2003," from Nebraska Bird Review (March 2004) 72(1).

Comments

Copyright 2004, Nebraska Ornithologists' Union. Used by permission.

Abstract

Following the recognition of its presence in Florida in the mid-1980s (Smith and Kale 1986), the Eurasian Collared-Dove has spread in spectacular fashion northward and mostly westward in the interior of the United States, arriving in Nebraska only about 15 years after its discovery in Florida. Prior to its establishment in the United States, the Eurasian Collared-Dove had undergone a similarly spectacular expansion westward across Europe beginning in the area of Albania and the former Yugoslavia in the 1930s and finally colonizing Great Britain in the late 1950s. Available evidence regarding the source population for its establishment in Florida points strongly to the dense population in the Bahamas (Smith 1987). This population was established by the importation of perhaps 50 birds from the Netherlands in the early 1970s by an aviary owner. Some escaped as the result of a break-in to the aviary where they were held, prompting the aviary owner to release the remainder in 1974 (Smith 1987).

The American Birding Association (ABA) added the Eurasian Collared-Dove to its Checklist in 1994, based on an established breeding population in Florida (DeBenedictis 1994). At the time of its addition to the ABA Checklist, the records farthest from Florida were in Louisiana and Arkansas (DeBenedictis 1994). At the same time, the ABA Checklist Committee removed from its Checklist Ringed Turtle-Dove (S. risoria: this "species" is thought to be a domestically-produced strain of African Collared-Dove S. roseogrisea), as it was believed that there were no longer any established, self-sustaining populations in North America (DeBenedictis 1994). There are occasional reports of Ringed Turtle-Dove in Nebraska, but all appear to be birds released or escaped from captivity.

The first Nebraska record of Eurasian Collared-Dove was a single bird at the feeder of Marty Mathieson in Shelton, Buffalo County on 29 November 1997. This bird was not identified to species until about 6 December (RH, LR; Nebraska Bird Review 1997, Volume 4).