IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

Not reported vocalising in HK, but the recent increase in summer reports suggests this might happen. The song is a rather quiet and rapid, rhythmic cooing rattle.

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Red Collared Dove is largely confined to open country in the northwest New Territories where it occurs around fish ponds and other wetlands, active and abandoned farmland and the edges of villages. Carey et al. (2001) identified the Mong Tseng Peninsula, and especially an open pig farm there, as a stronghold, but in recent years it has been most regular and the largest numbers have been recorded in the San Tin and Lok Ma Chau area. Away from its core Deep Bay stronghold, Red Collared Dove is regularly recorded in small numbers in Long Valley, the Kam Tin area, with occasional reports from elsewhere in the New Territories including the airport. It is also frequently recorded in small numbers at migration watch points during passage periods; such reports are most frequent on Po Toi, but there are also records from Lung Kwu Tan, southwest Lantau and even Ho Man Tin and Mount Davis.

OCCURRENCE 

As Figure 1 shows, Red Collared Dove is primarily a passage migrant, with the main passage periods typically extending from mid February to the end of April in spring, with a peak count at this season of 71 at San Tin on 10 March 2018, In autumn it generally occurs from mid-September to early December with a peak count of 203, also at San Tin, on 14 October 2018. Both numbers occurring and passage periods vary from year to year though it is usually commoner in autumn than in spring. Passage is typically protracted in autumn with small numbers remaining through the winter, though in some years larger flocks are seen at this time, including the highest count on record of 250 at Mai Po on 14 January 2002.

Comparison of the pattern of records between the 1958 – 1998 and 1999 – 2020 periods (Figure 1) suggests that the timing of occurrence and the peak passage periods has shown little change, save that in the more recent period small numbers have occurred both later in spring (latest date, two at Lok Ma Chau MTRC Ecological Enhancement Area (EEA) on 21 June 2020) and earlier in autumn (earliest date, two at Stanley on 13 July 2016). The higher autumn numbers in the second of the two periods are at least in part due to increased observer activity.

Like Oriental Turtle Dove, the abundance of Red Collared Dove has fluctuated over the years. The earliest documented record is of a flock of 20 – 30 at Yuen Long on 4 October 1931 (Hutson 1931), who noted that it had ‘always been considered a rare visitor to HK’ only occurring whilst on ‘winter’ migration. That Red Collared Dove was a rare visitor at that time is, however, contradicted by Aymas (1931) who described it a a winter visitor occurring from the end of October to the beginning of March, sometimes occurring in flocks of two to three hundred birds. Similarly, Pereira (1938), referring to the winter of 1937-38, described it as very numerous, with flocks of 60 – 70 birds being a common sight at Kam Tin and Ha Tsuen whilst the rice was being harvested. Pereira was a hunter – indeed he described shooting half a dozen or more Red Collared Doves with a single shot and recorded his ‘bag’ for the season as comprising 184 birds – and it seems likely that he had a better understanding of the status of his quarry species than others.

Herklots (1953), primarily referring to his observations in the 1930s, described Red Turtle Dove as found throughout the New Territories (but not on HK Island) in winter (with an earliest date of 21 September and the main arrival in late October) and as occurring ‘often in flocks of some hundreds’ so it does seem that at that time it was a common winter visitor, most likely commoner than it is today. However, as is noted by Carey et al. (2001),  a drastic decline appears to have taken place in the 1950s (a decline attributed to hunting in China during a time of terrible famine) and, indeed, it was not noted at all by Dove and Goodhart (1955) despite their observations being largely from the New Territories. Walker (1958) referred to only six seen on two dates, and, other than a flock of 20 in October 1959, no flocks of ten or more were seen until the 1970s, and it was not until October 1984 that flocks of 50 or more were seen again. The continued increase noted since the first Avifauna thus represents a partial return to its former status, though with the reduction in areas of suitable habitat, especially farmland, since that time it seems unlikely if it will ever become as common and widespread as it was in the 1930s.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Of HK’s four open country doves, Red Collared Dove is the species most likely to occur in large flocks, though sightings of single birds and small parties are not unusual, especially outside peak migration periods. If not observed in flight, it is usually to be seen foraging on the ground or perched on wires or trees – in the latter instance dead trees often seem to be favoured – and, like other doves, often appears to loaf on such perches for long periods.

Red Turtle Dove  appears to be a granivore with most food obtained by foraging on the ground. Aymas (1931) described it foraging on loose grains of rice left behind after harvest, whilst the flocks at Mong Tseng in the 1980s fed on food scattered for pigs. At San Tin it is frequently seen eating bread stored for feeding fish and and at Lok Ma Chau EEA it readily forages on dried noodles provided as food for starlings (M. R. Leven pers obs).

BREEDING

There is no evidence that Red Collared Dove has ever bred in HK. However, the recent increase in summer reports suggest that breeding is a distinct possibility. In this regard, it is of note that Vaughan and Jones (1913) considered it to be a common resident species on the West River, though it seems that it is now a rather scarce species in southeast China (Lewthwaite 1996) and recent eBird records in Guangdong Province lie outside the midsummer period (eBird 2021).

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

The native range of Red Collared Dove extends from Pakistan in the west, through India and southeast Asia east to the Philippines and south to Singapore. Feral populations have also become established on several islands in Indonesia (Baptista et al. 2020). In China, Red Collared Dove is widespread in the centre and south of the country north to Shaanxi and Shandong, with some records from the northeast (Liu and Chen 2021).

There are two subspecies, the taxon occurring in China, including HK, is S. t. humilis.

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend decreasing.