Great news for turtle doves
So back in January 2024 I recorded a podcast with my son (on The Birdy Bug Pod for those of you who don’t know it) which was titled ‘The UK’s fastest declining bird’. We highlighted the sad fact that the turtle dove has suffered a devastating 99% decline since the 1970s.
Factors behind this decline include changes in agricultural practices leading to a shortage of food and hunting by humans.
We discussed the shocking statistics that show before 2019, around one million turtle doves were shot or trapped every autumn as they migrated over Europe on their way back to their wintering grounds in West Africa. Incredibly, this is legal in France, Spain and Portugal.
It was a tough episode to record as we were talking about the very real possibility of this beautiful bird facing extinction.
But hang on… like in all of our episodes we like to highlight the positives. Urgent action was needed. So we talked at length about how the RSPB led on an international conservation action plan in 2018, working with experts from across the turtle dove’s range to identify the main problems turtle doves faced.
Most importantly they worked together to identify the most effective solutions which would help numbers increase and this included getting the temporary ban of turtle dove hunting in France, Spain and Portugal from 2021.
Unsurprisingly, since the suspension of turtle dove hunting, there has been a rapid increase in numbers. New figures just released show the number of turtle doves breeding in Western Europe increased by 40% from 2021 to 2024 – that’s 615,000 more breeding pairs.
Following this success, the European Commission has decided that as pre-determined conditions of this phase have been met to allow the next phase – a limited level of hunting, set to allow continued strong population growth, to be reinstated in autumn 2025.
Of course I’m sure we would all like to see a total hunting ban introduced but this really is encouraging news and we have to take those numbers as a big win in the effort to save this bird.
This is a genuine good news story
The next part of the conservation efforts will now be focused on supporting farmers and landowners to create the ideal breeding conditions here in the UK and this is where Operation Turtle Dove comes in. (A partnership between the RSPB, Natural England, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust and Fair to Nature.)
Working with farmers, land managers and local communities the plan is to restore the ideal habitat that turtle doves thrive in such as seed-rich flowering areas, patches of thorny scrub and tall, wide hedgerows.
Local greenspaces and gardens can also benefit turtle doves if they have the right habitat, so we can all do our bit to help by incorporating any of these conditions into our gardens and local communities.
We use the word ‘hope’ as much as we can on our podcast and all the time there are organisations such as these fighting to save and restore nature, there really is hope.
This positive news about the turtle dove is testament to that.
Individually we can all do a bit, together we can do loads.
You can find out more about the great work they are doing here
