Turtle dove
Interesting Creatures…
The Kaieteur News – Turtle Doves is featured in the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” as the gift “my real love gives me” on the second day of Christmas. If added cumulatively, by the end of the song, the receiver has got 22.
Perhaps because of biblical references (especially the well-known verse from Song of Songs), his mournful voice, and the fact that he formed strong pair bonds, Turtle Doves, have become emblems of devotional love.
In the New Testament, it is mentioned that two turtle doves were sacrificed for the Birth of Jesus. In Renaissance Europe, the Turtle Dove was envisioned as a staunch Phoenix partner. Robert Chester’s poem Love’s Martyr is an ongoing exploration of this symbolism. It was published along with other poems on the subject, including William Shakespeare’s poem “The Phoenix and the Turtle” (where “turtle” refers to the turtle dove).
The Turtle Dove is also featured in many folk songs about love and loss. One of these is a location by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This bird species also appears in the title and spiritual words of the Georgia Sea Islands.
Also known as the European Turtle Doll (Streptopelia turtle), the Turtle Dove is a member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes pigeons and pigeons. It is a migratory species with a southern Palaearctic range, including Turkey and North Africa, although it is rare in northern Scandinavia and Russia. It winters in southern Africa.
According to the 2007 State of Europe Common Birds report, the European Turtle population in Europe has dropped 62 percent recently. This is partly because changing farming practices mean that the weed seeds and shoots on which it feeds, especially Fumitory, are rarer, and partly because of bird shooting in the Mediterranean countries during their migration.
Smaller and lighter in construction than many other pigeons, it measures 24–29 cm (9.4–11 in) long, 47–55 cm (19–22 in) in wingspan and weighs 85–170 g (3.0–6.0 oz).
The brown color, and the black-and-white striped piece on the side of his neck, may identify Turtle Pigeon. The tail is distinctive as the bird flies from the observer; it is wedge shaped, with a dark center and white borders and tips. Looked at below, this pattern, because the white under-tail coverts hide the dark grounds, is a black caudor on white ground. This can be seen when the bird plunges into drinking and raises its spreading tail.
The mature bird has the head, neck, flanks, and gray-gray rump, and cinnamon of the wings, trimmed with black. The breast is lively, the abdomen and under tail disguises are white. The bill is black, the legs and eye rims are red. The black and white patch on the side of the neck is absent in the softer brown and juvenile bird, which also has the legs brown.
Turtle Dove, one of the latest migrants, will rarely appear in Northern Europe before the end of April, returning south again in September.
It is a bird of open woodland rather than dense, and often feeds on the ground. Sometimes it will nest in large gardens, but it is usually extremely drowsy, probably due to the heavy hunting pressure it faces when migrating. Flight is often described as savage, but not surprisingly fast.
The nuptial flight, high and circular, is similar to the Common Wood Pigeon, but the waves are less decisive; it is accompanied by the whip crack of the downward flicker wings. The arrival of spring is summed up by his heartbreaking, deep, vibratory song “turrr, turrr,” from which the bird’s name is derived. Despite the identical spelling, the name “turtle”, derived from the turtle Latin, has no connection with the reptile; “Turtle” in that case originally came from Late Latin tortuca. (Source: Wikipedia)