Stock Dove

How to recognise it

• Blue-grey with green neck sheen, greyish purple-red foreneck, white underparts and pink bill with yellow tip
• Two short dark wing bars, grey rump and a broad dark band at the tail tip
• In flight a dark trailing edge and dark grey underwing, not white as in Rock Dove
• Sexes look alike, the male slightly larger; juveniles lack the glossy neck patch

Call and song

The call is a short "hu", often repeated. This short, deep, grunting call is clearly different from the modulated cooing of the Woodpigeon.

Where and when

In Sweden the Stock Dove breeds sparsely from Skåne to central Värmland, south-eastern Dalarna and Gästrikland, and is much commoner in the south and east than in the west. It returns in March and April and leaves in September and October for southern France and northern Spain, though a few winter in southern Sweden. It is reported most in March, rarely in December, and from all 21 counties.

Food and behaviour

It eats seeds such as rape and arable weeds, along with berries, grain and peas, and feeds mainly on open fields and farmland. It is fairly shy and usually seen in flocks of a few to a few dozen birds, often with Woodpigeons. The nest is usually in a tree hole, and in the circling spring flight the wings crack like a whip.