Streptopelia turtur
Streptopelia turtur
The European turtle dove is a Palaearctic species with breeding populations ranging from the Atlantic coasts to western China (BirdLife International, 2024). In Europe it is absent from Fennoscandia, northern Ireland and Scotland, and certain Alpine areas. In Spain it occurs both on the mainland and in Ceuta and Melilla, as well as in the archipelagos (Moreno and López-Jiménez in SEO/BirdLife, 2022). It is scarce in the high mountains of the Pyrenees and along the Cantabrian coast between Asturias and the Basque Country.
In the Community of Madrid it is distributed across practically the entire autonomous region, except in high mountain areas. It is associated with wooded environments, preferring riparian forests, olive groves, ash woodlands, and Mediterranean stone pine stands, and to a lesser extent areas of scrubland and shrub formations (Díaz et al., 1994).
In the national park it is very scarce, as it does not occupy mountainous areas, and it has only been detected in the southeastern sector, in an ash-dominated riparian grove near La Pedriza.
This species occupies a wide variety of habitats and can be found in woodland, agricultural areas, or agro-pastoral mosaics (Carboneras et al., 2022). In the Canary Islands, the highest abundances are associated with tamarisk groves and wet areas.
In the national park it occupies low-altitude ash woodlands.
At a global scale, it is considered in the category Vulnerable (VU; 2019). In Europe, it is also classified in the same category (VU; 2020). In Spain, it is listed as Vulnerable in the 2021 Red List.
The Catalogue of Threatened Species of the Community of Madrid (1992) does not place the species in any threat category.
Bacon, L., Guillemain, M., Arroyo, B., Carboneras, C., Fay, R, Sauser, C. y Lormée, H. 2023. Predominant hold of survival on the population dynamics of a threatened migratory game species: implications for hunting regulations. Journal of Ornithology, 164: 275-285.
BirdLife International. 2024. IUCN Red List for birds. https://datazone.birdlife.org.
Carboneras, C., Moreno-Zárate, L. y Arroyo, B. 2022. The European Turtle Dove in the ecotone between woodland and farmland: multi-scale habitat associations and implications for the design of management interventions. Journal of Ornithology, 163: 339-355.
Equipa Atlas. 2022. III Atlas das Aves Nidificantes de Portugal (2016-2021). SPEA, ICNF, LabOr/UÉ, IFCN. Portugal.
Fisher, I., Ashpole, J., Scallan, D., Proud, T., Carboneras, C. 2018. International Single Species Action Plan for the Conservation of the European Turtle-dove, Streptopelia turtur (2018 to 2028). European Commission.
IUCN Standards and Petitions Committee. 2024. Guidelines for Using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Version 16. Gland.
LPO/BirdLife, SEOF y Office Français de la Biodiversité. 2020. La Liste rouge des espèces menacées en France. Chapitre des oiseaux nicheurs de France métropolitaine. Rapport d’évaluation. MNHN y UICN Comité français. Paris.
Moreno, L., Arroyo, B. y Peach, W. 2021. Effectiveness of hunting regulations for the conservation of a globally-threatened species: The case of the European turtle-dove in Spain. Biological Conservation, 256: 109067.
SEO/BirdLife (Molina, B., Nebreda, A., Muñoz, A. R., Seoane, J., Real, R., Bustamante, J. y Del Moral, J. C., eds.). 2022. III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España. SEO/BirdLife. Madrid.