Stock doves

The BlipBigYear challenge has caused me to blip possibly one of my worst photographs of the day! Birds seem to be like busses - after a long wait for a new species to the list, I photographed three today! But two can be found again reliably, whilst the stock dove Columba oenas that I've chosen is sporadic in appearance, and tends to be very shy, making it hard to get a good image. This image has been very severely cropped, hence the relatively poor quality.

Stock doves are similar in plumage and size to rock doves/feral pigeons. They are largely blue-grey with an attractive iridescent bottle green band on the back of the neck. In flight they show black edges to the wing and two partial black bands near their back. Unlike rock doves/feral pigeons they do not have pale rumps. They are widely distributed in the UK, except for parts of northern Scotland and Ireland, with particularly high densities in the English Midlands and South West. Over half their European population is found in the UK.

The Stock Dove is a tree hole nesting species which is in sharp decline, from habitat loss combined with hunting pressure. The nest is usually in a hole in an old tree. Before deforestation, the Stock Dove was the most frequent pigeon, nesting mostly in oak or pine wood, but as it usually nests in cavities in trees it was normally only found in old forests. In plantations there are not as many holes to nest in, so it is scarcer. In addition, as the Stock Dove is double brooded, a second hole is required for the second brood. They have even been found to nest in rabbit burrows, ruins with cavities large enough to host nesting and old poplar hedges which have numerous cavities for nesting, and in cracks in crag or cliff faces.

The habitats of the Stock Dove are in more or less open country, for though it often nests in trees it prefers parklands to thick woods. It is also common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes. Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. It perches well, and in nuptial display walks along a horizontal branch with swelled neck, lowered wings, and fanned tail. During the circling spring flight the wings are smartly cracked like a whip.

It feeds on a variety of foods including seeds, acorns, berries, bay berries, hawthorn berries, figs, cereal grains, beans, peas, and small invertebrates that obtained while walking on the floor. During autumn migration in October, Stock Doves stop over at places with an abundance of acorns, supplementing the diet with shoots and leaves.

The word "Stock" in the common name of this species refers not to the stock of trade, but comes from the Old English "stocc" meaning "stump, post, stake, tree trunk, log,". Therefore, "Stock Dove" means "a dove which lives in hollow trees". Such hollow trees near human settlements would often be taken and used as wood stock for firewood, hence the name.