European Turtle-dove (Streptopelia turtur) | Details

European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	A2bcd+3bcd+4bcd

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2019	Vulnerable	A2bcd+3bcd+4bcd
2016	Vulnerable	A2bcd+3bcd+4bcd
2015	Vulnerable	A2bcd+3bcd+4bcd
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Species attributes

Migratory status	full migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	35,700,000 km²	medium
Extent of Occurrence (non-breeding)	7,080,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	12800000-47600000 mature individuals	-	estimated	2012
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2008-2024
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	30-49%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	30-49%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	30-49%	-	-	-
Generation length	5.3 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The European population is estimated at 3,150,000-5,940,000 pairs, which equates to 6,310,000-11,900,000 mature individuals (BirdLife International 2015). Europe forms 25-49% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 19,300,000-71,400,000 individuals. This roughly equates to 12,800,000-47,600,000 mature individuals. Further validation of this estimate is needed.

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be in decline owing to ongoing habitat destruction and unsustainable levels of exploitation. In Europe, the population size is estimated to be decreasing by 30-49% in 15.9 years (three generations) (BirdLife International 2015). In Europe, trends since 1980 show that populations have undergone a moderate decline, based on data from the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme (EBCC/RSPB/BirdLife/Statistics Netherlands, P. Vorisek in litt. 2008). In Central Asia (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), an analysis of observations of the species suggests that it has experienced a moderate or possibly strong decline over the past two to four decades (R. Ayé in litt. 2015). In Uzbekistan, the species has declined severely over the past thirty years (R. Kashkarov in litt. 2015). The formerly large population in European Russia has crashed by > 80% since 2000 and by > 90% since 1980 (BirdLife International 2015). Declines have also been reported from parts of east and south-east Kazakhstan; for example the species is now rare or even absent in the Manrak Mountains, where it was once common (Wassink and Oreel 2008).

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Afghanistan	extant	native	yes
Albania	extant	native	yes
Algeria	extant	native	yes		yes
Andorra	extant	native	yes
Armenia	extant	native	yes
Austria	extant	native	yes
Azerbaijan	extant	native	yes
Bahrain	extant	native	yes		yes
Belarus	extant	native	yes
Belgium	extant	native	yes
Benin	extant	native		yes
Bosnia and Herzegovina	extant	native	yes
Botswana	extant	vagrant
Bulgaria	extant	native	yes		yes
Burkina Faso	extant	native		yes
Cameroon	extant	native		yes
Cape Verde	extant	vagrant
Central African Republic	extant	native		yes
Chad	extant	native		yes
China (mainland)	extant	native	yes
Comoros	extant	vagrant
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	vagrant
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native		yes
Croatia	extant	native	yes
Cyprus	extant	native	yes
Czechia	extant	native	yes
Denmark	extant	native	yes		yes
Djibouti	extant	vagrant
Egypt	extant	native	yes
Eritrea	extant	native		yes
Estonia	extant	native	yes
Ethiopia	extant	native		yes
Faroe Islands (to Denmark)	extant	vagrant
Finland	extant	native	yes
France	extant	native	yes		yes
Gabon	extant	vagrant
Gambia	extant	native		yes
Georgia	extant	native	yes
Germany	extant	native	yes		yes
Ghana	extant	native		yes
Gibraltar (to UK)	extant	native	yes
Greece	extant	native	yes		yes
Guinea	extant	native		yes
Guinea-Bissau	extant	native		yes
Hungary	extant	native	yes
Iceland	extant	vagrant
Iran, Islamic Republic of	extant	native	yes		yes
Iraq	extant	native	yes		yes
Ireland	extant	native			yes
Israel	extant	native	yes
Italy	extant	native	yes		yes
Jordan	extant	native	yes		yes
Kazakhstan	extant	native	yes
Kenya	extant	vagrant
Kuwait	extant	native			yes
Kyrgyzstan	extant	native	yes
Latvia	extant	native	yes
Lebanon	extant	native	yes		yes
Liberia	extant	vagrant
Libya	extant	native	yes
Liechtenstein	extant	native	yes
Lithuania	extant	native	yes
Luxembourg	extant	native	yes
Maldives	extant	vagrant
Mali	extant	native		yes	yes
Malta	extant	native			yes
Mauritania	extant	native		yes	yes
Moldova	extant	native	yes
Mongolia	extant	native	yes
Montenegro	extant	native	yes
Morocco	extant	native	yes		yes
Namibia	extant	vagrant
Netherlands	extant	native	yes
Niger	extant	native		yes
Nigeria	extant	native		yes
North Macedonia	extant	native	yes
Norway	extant	vagrant
Oman	extant	native	yes		yes
Pakistan	extant	vagrant
Palestine	extant	native	yes		yes
Poland	extant	native	yes
Portugal	extant	native	yes		yes
Qatar	extant	native			yes
Romania	extant	native	yes
Russia	extant	native	yes		yes
Russia (Central Asian)	extant	native	yes
Russia (European)	extant	native	yes		yes
Saudi Arabia	extant	native	yes		yes
Senegal	extant	native		yes
Serbia	extant	native	yes
Seychelles	extant	vagrant
Sierra Leone	extant	vagrant
Slovakia	extant	native	yes
Slovenia	extant	native	yes
Somalia	extant	vagrant
South Africa	extant	vagrant
South Sudan	extant	native		yes
Spain	extant	native	yes		yes
Sudan	extant	native		yes
Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands (to Norway)	extant	vagrant
Sweden	extant	native			yes
Switzerland	extant	native	yes
Syria	extant	native	yes		yes
Tajikistan	extant	native	yes
Togo	extant	native		yes
Tunisia	extant	native	yes
Türkiye	extant	native	yes		yes
Turkmenistan	extant	native	yes
Uganda	extant	vagrant
Ukraine	extant	native	yes		yes
United Arab Emirates	extant	native	yes		yes
United Kingdom	extant	native	yes
Uzbekistan	extant	native	yes
Western Sahara	extant	native			yes
Yemen	extant	native			yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Dabarsko and Fatničko Karstic Fields
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Duvanjsko polje
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Lušci polje
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Mostarsko Blato
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Nevesinjsko polje
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Popovo polje
Bulgaria	Kresna Gorge
Bulgaria	Provadiysko-Royaksko plateau
Bulgaria	Sakar
Czechia	Krivoklatsko (Krivoklatsko region)
Montenegro	Bjelopavlici
Montenegro	Bojana Delta
Montenegro	Bratogost
Montenegro	Canyons of Moraca and Mala rijeka
Montenegro	Kuči and Cijevna canyon
Montenegro	Lovćen and Paštrovići Mountains
Montenegro	Lower Moraca and Podgorica
Montenegro	Orjen
Montenegro	Piva
Montenegro	Plavsko Lake and Lim and Grncar Valley
Montenegro	Rumija
Montenegro	Skadar Lake
Montenegro	Ulcinj saltpans
Netherlands	Panningen - Roggel
Netherlands	Rijntakken
Netherlands	Susteren - Roermond
Serbia	Deliblatska pescara
Serbia	Presevo valley - Rujen
Serbia	Stara mountains
Serbia	Timocko pobrdje
Serbia	Toplica
Spain	Mountains of Barcelona
Ukraine	Samars'kyj forest

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	major	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	major	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	non-breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	breeding
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	non-breeding
Forest	Boreal	major	breeding
Forest	Boreal	major	non-breeding
Forest	Temperate	major	breeding
Forest	Temperate	major	non-breeding
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	major	breeding
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	major	non-breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	major	breeding
Shrubland	Temperate	major	non-breeding
Altitude	0 - 1300 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threats & impact

Threat (level 1)

Threat (level 2)

Impact and Stresses

Agriculture & aquaculture

Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Agro-industry farming

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Whole (>90%)

Rapid Declines

High Impact: 8

Stresses
Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion

Biological resource use

Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Whole (>90%)

Rapid Declines

High Impact: 8

Stresses
Species mortality

Biological resource use

Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Unintentional effects (species is not the target)

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Whole (>90%)

Rapid Declines

High Impact: 8

Stresses
Species mortality

Climate change & severe weather

Droughts

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Majority (50-90%)

Unknown

Stresses
Species mortality

Climate change & severe weather

Temperature extremes

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Unknown

Stresses
Reduced reproductive success

Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases

Problematic native species/diseases - Streptopelia decaocto

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Majority (50-90%)

Negligible declines

Low Impact: 5

Stresses
Species mortality

Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases

Problematic native species/diseases - Trichomonas gallinae

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Minority (<50%)

Unknown

Stresses
Species mortality

Pollution

Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Whole (>90%)

Rapid Declines

High Impact: 8

Stresses
Ecosystem degradation, Species mortality

Utilisation

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/european-turtle-dove-streptopelia-turtur on 21/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 21/12/2024.