IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

The song is a rhythmic slow series of 3-4 cooing notes.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Oriental Turtle Dove occurs in a wide variety of habitats, including forest, plantations, woodland edges and both agricultural and fish pond areas so long as trees or bamboos are present for shelter, resting and roosting.

Carey et al. (2001) described Oriental Turtle Dove as a common winter visitor and passage migrant with isolated summer records. At that time it was widespread in the New Territories and on Lantau and HK Island in winter, and on the smaller islands on passage. In the 2001-05 winter atlas it was found in 14.9% of squares, but these were predominantly in the northwest, northeast and central New Territories and on Lantau, with only a few scattered squares occupied by a handful of birds in the southeast New Territories and on HK Island, suggesting that a decline might already have begun at that time. This decline has continued in the most recent period, and has been such that Oriental Turtle Dove was only found in 2.7% of squares in the 2016-19 winter atlas survey, almost entirely in the northwest New Territories with just a small number of birds seen elsewhere, largely in the eastern New Territories and on Lantau.

However, in contrast to its decline as a winter visitor and passage migrant, summer records have become more frequent, especially in the northwest, and to a lesser extent the northeast, New Territories. Whilst numbers are small, with no counts of more than five birds between early June and mid August, summer records have been annual since 2006, and whilst there are no fully documented breeding records, juveniles reported between May and early September seem most likely to have been reared locally. In keeping with this recent change of status, Oriental Turtle Dove was reported in 0.2% of squares in the 1993-96 breeding atlas survey and in 0.6% of squares in that of 2016-19.

OCCURRENCE 

Carey et al. (2001) stated that Oriental Turtle Dove was recorded largely between November and April, with some birds seen in October and May in most years. They also indicated that wintering birds probably begin to depart from late February, with numbers gradually declining from then until the middle of March, following which there was an increase during April and sometimes into May, composed of flocks of passage birds, largely in the Deep Bay area.

The pattern of records during 1999-2020 was similar overall, but less clear-cut, with less evidence of passage in April and May but more birds seen in June, such that it has become difficult to distinguish late migrants from summering and breeding birds. Similarly, whilst Carey et al. (2001) detailed a clearly-defined arrival in autumn from mid-October to mid-November, in recent years there has been a gradual increase in records and numbers through August and September, with larger flocks recorded from the last week in October. Whilst such flocks are clearly made up of passage migrants and wintering birds, it is unclear if birds seen in the latter part of September and early October are arriving migrants or, perhaps more likely, dispersing summering and breeding birds.

Historically, the numbers of Oriental Turtle Doves wintering and passing through HK have shown marked fluctuations. It was regarded as a fairly common winter visitor by Kershaw (1904) and Vaughan and Jones (1913), and it was still a common winter visitor in the 1930s; for example, Pereira (1938) noted that flocks of a dozen or so were encountered on several occasions during the August 1937 to January 1938 shooting season. It became much rarer in the 1950s and 1960s, a decline that Carey et al. (2001) speculated was linked to increased hunting for food in China during the famine of the 1950s. By the 1970s and 1980s it was again a regular and fairly common winter visitor, as it was in 2001 at the time of the first Avifauna of HK. The recent decline is therefore not unprecedented; though the cause must differ, it again seems likely that the reason for the decline lies in China, not HK, where suitable habitat remains plentiful. Oriental Turtle Doves winter widely in China as far north as Liaoning and Beijing and it may simply be the case that with warmer winters in recent years larger numbers are wintering further north.

Figure 1 suggests that total numbers of Oriental Turtle Dove migrating through and wintering in HK have not changed greatly since the period documented in the first Avifauna. This appears contrary to the decline observed between the two winter atlas surveys described above, as well the the experience of many observers, and is undoubtedly an artefact of the sustained increase in observer coverage (and record submission) in recent years. Examination of the individual records that make up the aggregate totals shows that these now comprise a relatively large number of observations of small parties of birds. This contrasts with the period covered by Carey et al. (2001) where the total number of records was much less, but individual counts were higher. This applies to roost counts at Mai Po which made up a high proportion of the high counts in the late 1990s, including that which remains the highest: 706 on 3 January 1996. In the current period counts of over 100 birds have become unusual, with a count of 217 at Lok Ma Chau on 24 January 2010 being the highest this century.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Oriental Turtle Dove is commonly observed foraging in small parties in areas of short grass and around fish ponds or seen perched in trees or on wires, often with other doves. As is discussed above, it roosts communally in trees, including in mangroves, and bamboos; and individuals and small parties are commonly seen flying fast and low towards roost sites. Birds foraging for fruit presumably also make movements between roosting and feeding sites but these have not been documented.

Oriental Turtle Dove is a granivore-frugivore. It regularly takes advantage of bread or noodles stored or spilled around fish ponds, whilst in former times flocks were observed feeding in rice fields (Herklots 1967). Herklots (1967) noted that in spring it also feeds on tree fruit in thickly wooded ravines (presumably on HK Island); however, in such situations it is not documented whether the birds consume the flesh, the seeds, or the entire fruit.

BREEDING

There are no confirmed observations of nests, eggs or unfledged young in HK. Singing birds have been noted in all months of the year except January, August, September and November, whilst juveniles have been noted between 16 June and 13 December. Of course singing birds are not necessarily breeding, whilst juveniles may be migrants that were reared outside of HK, though it seems likely that at least those seen in June to early September (outside the observed migration period in HK) in 2002, 2003 (three individuals), 2010, 2014 and 2020 were hatched locally.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS 

The range extends from central Siberia east of the Urals east to Sakhalin and the Kurils and south to eastern Iran, southern India and northern Thailand and northern Vietnam and Laos (Baptista et al. 2020). In China It is found throughout the country except for southern Xinjiang, Qinghai, northern Tibet and much of lnner Mongolia. It is migratory in the northern parts of its range including in China where northern Xinjiang and Heilongjiang are vacated in winter (Liu and Chen 2021).

There are five subspecies, three of which occur in China. S. o. meena is found in northern Xinjiang, S. o. agricola in west and south Yunnan, and the nominate race throughout the rest of its range, including HK.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.