Stock Dove (Columba oenas)

About once a week we get a visit from a couple of these dainty little pigeons.  Much more nervous than the Woodpigeons which are so at home that I have even seen the squirrel have to physically push one off the bird table.

Stock Doves are of Amber conservation concern owing to a slight population decline, both summer and winter.  Unlike most pigeons Stock Doves are hole nesters and so rely on holes in trees etc.  Although they have even been known to nest in Rabbit holes.

Stock Doves can be told from Wood pIgeons and indeed the similar but larger Feral "Blue Bar" racing pigeon, by having no white anywhere.  Wood Pigeons have white in the wing and on the neck, Blue Bars on the rump.

Incidentally they aren't found north of a line from Glasgow to Aberdeen, the Welsh Mountains or Scotland's Southern Uplands.