Stock dove driving

Stock Doves are so intriguing. A combination of shyness and a superficial resemblance to feral pigeons makes them often pass unnoticed. Several times this spring I have watched them in flight, usually a pair, sometimes trios, with one of the doves flying right above another, their wings almost touching, but there didn't seem to be aggression in the behaviour. What are they doing?
 I might have found the answer today, reading an old article by Derek Goodwin. He describes a behaviour called 'driving' which is present in several members of the pigeon family, including the domestic pigeon. This is his description:

The driving cock follows his mate everywhere, often literally "treading on her tail". He pecks, usually in a gentle manner, but sometimes fiercely, at her head. If the hen takes wing he flies closely behind and above her. If she goes to the nest (domestic birds) the male stops driving.

Pigeon breeders thought that driving meant that the male pigeon wanted the female to go to nest, given that when the female goes to the nest the driving stops. Goodwin disagreed with this interpretation and thought instead that driving allowed the male to keep the female away from suitors, either on the ground or in flight.

In the two photos illustrating this post, a third pigeon was flying out of frame. I presume the male is the individual above, intercepting the female from the male.

Goodwin observations were consistent with this, as driving happened when other males were near the female, in particular during a period before egg laying and ended once the first egg has been laid, that is, a period when the female is sexually receptive, so that the behaviour is the way the male keeps the female away of competitors, and is effectively a form of mate guarding, as he put it 'It functions to prevent insemination of the female by males other than her own mate. Interference with copulating pairs is part of the same behaviour-complex as driving and has a like causation and function.' When, occasionally, driving was observed with just the pair involved, he thought that the male had succeeded in his driving: 

I have seen a pair fly up from some crowded feeding ground, and the male, who was at first driving hard in flight, swing out beside or in front of his mate as they got well away from others in the air, usually going into display flight as he did so.

More information

Derek Goodwin (1956) The Significance of Some Behaviour Patterns ofPigeons, Bird Study, 3:1, 25-37, DOI: 10.1080/00063655609475836.

Stock dove take over

Yesterday the insistent, zebra-like call of a stock dove just outside the house called my attention. It was atop the Tawny Owl box. We've got the box occupied by the owls since the beginning of the spring, and I presume that they fledged their young earlier as they have been quiet in the last couple of weeks. It's funny that the owls took over the repaired box from Stock Doves and now the doves are back. He was there just now, calling again. The doves should have enough time to raise at least a couple of clutches.

Two nest hole snatchers

Some birds make nests from scratch, building them from twigs, branches, spider's webs, lichens or mud. Others need a hole to nest on, and they will use natural holes or those drilled by other birds. This post is about two such 'nest snatchers' I've watched recently. In the last few days, I've noticed starlings moving a lot of back and forth between an Ash and the grass lawns in my local park. Yesterday, they were actually using last year's Great Spotted Woodpecker's nest. Woodpeckers have a reputation for feeding on the chicks of hole nesting birds, but they also might be providing them with the nest hole in the first place.

A photo from last year (24th June), with a chick almost ready to fledge calling to its parent (on the right branch) 

Yesterday, a Starling getting in the hole

 The other nest snatching event happened just in front of my house. There's been an owl box in the Lime tree in front of the house for over 15 years. It was well used, the hooting and gurgling noises of the Tawny Owls from the nest very obvious in the night. A few years ago the bottom of the nest fell off, and the sky was visible from the ground. On Valentine's day the next year the owls called from the nest, probably inspecting it, but it was deemed useless and we stayed owl-less for a few years. This year, Stock Doves showed a lot of interest in the owl house (top shot taken 9th April). They stuffed the box with branches, and miraculously, the branches stayed, the box had been repaired!

The repaired nest, branches sticking out at the bottom.

 The booming call of the Stock Doves greeted me in the mornings as I left for work. Until one night we heard a Tawny Own hooting. The owl was actually sitting atop the nest, calling, then flew off low over the roofs. The owls have been calling regularly since, and I guess they have taken possession of the owl box and evicted the Stock Doves.
 

 Tawny Owl watching us from the nest box (20th April).

Stock doves courting

I was lucky this morning to watch a pair of Stock Doves courting from a good vantage point. They usually stick to high branches in the trees in the park, only rarely coming to the ground. Today I heard a male's booming call from the trees opposite the pond, and I climbed to a small hill on the other side. My new camera is heavy and I still need to get used to its weight, so I eventually leaned against a tree trunk to steady myself. The male crouched on a branch bowing parsimoniously at the same time that fanned its tail - very similar to woodpigeon's courtship -, facing the female. Its neck, inflated with air showed while cooing showed its green iridescent neck patch, which looks much larger than when the dove is at rest (bottom photo).

A side view of the male singing

The male looks at the female about to land

She greets her with this lovely display

She eventually lands next to him. This photo is not brilliant, but I like how the neck patch is actually ruffed, something I had not seen before.

More male bowing, fanning tail, showing its iridescent neck patch.

A stock dove at rest, from 27th Feb. Compare the size of the neck path.

Four calling pigeons

I had this little project in my mind for a long time, to get photos of all four local pigeon species as they call. What I had not anticipated was that I would do in in a single day in the space of 15 minutes, all in a very small area. All pigeons are now in full blown song and courtship. When I spotted the Woodpigeon above, he wasn't calling, it appeared to be just enjoying the sun, but as I walked away, I heard it calling and I turned back. The noise of the roadworks didn't stop it calling.

It is unusual to see a Collared Dove calling in the park.

Not much further away, a Stock Dove started calling. This ash is their favourite tree, and most of the time there are two or three there. Stock doves are quite timid, and they call from high vantage points.

To end the series, it wasn't too hard to find the courting Feral Pigeons, there were plenty around. This male and watchful female were on the roof of the cafe at Pearson Park. 

Stock dove

In the calm after the storm, Stock Doves resumed their activities in the park. This morning there is a lot of chasing and singing going on around the trees where they nest. This individual sat sunbathing and preening itself.

Coo coo!

I have been wanting to get this shot for a while, and I managed it this afternoon. A singing Collared Dove, throat puffed out, with the low sun of the winter afternoon lighting it from underneath, doing its repeated, three-syllable coo from an aerial, their favourite singing perch.
 I photographed two cooing pigeons today, as the Stock Doves in my local park are also very vocal, although much more coy than the collared dove, I couldn't manage a nice shot, but like how the iridescent patch in the neck spreads out, making feather stripes which are not very visible on the resting bird.

The song of the Stock dove is also cooing, but lower, bisylabic and full of effort, and lacks the purring quality of the domestic pigeon. Given how shy and unobtrusive these doves are, learning to identify their call is the best way to spot them.

Here is a nice recording from Volker Arnold in Germany:

Frisky Pigeons

All of January, Collared Doves have been playing their the three note song in a repetitive, mesmerizing soundtrack. Outside, display flights, in which the doves fly across the street of over roofs with wings held low as they descend, indicate that Collared Doves are starting to gear up for the breeding season.

Woodpigeons too. In fact, they seem to not have stopped breeding. In early November, I watched a fledgling begging for food in the park (above), and yesterday, I saw an immature with no signs of white feathers, feeding on the grass (below). The individual on the top shot appears to be a young pigeon growing its neck and head feathers.

Today, in the lime tree just outside my house a male Woodpigeon nest-called persistently while the female checked a pile of loose sticks on the first fork of the tree.

Even the Stock Doves, a normally quite discreet bird, also showed a lot of exuberant activity in the park. High flights, chases, courting and persistent song. A male tried to approach a female on a brach and she flew off (below).

The - so far - mild winter might be fooling them into an early breeding season.

The timid dove

You can consider yourself lucky if you have watched Stock Doves (Columba oenas) around. Compared with the obvious Woodpigeons and Collared Doves, and the tame ever present feral pigeons, Stock Doves are shy and unobstrusive. Their general dove-like appearance makes them almost invisible despite being relatively frequent in towns and villages. Although dull-grey from a distance, this dove is quite delicate at close range. It is shorter tailed and smaller than the Woodpigeon, being similar in size to the feral pigeon, but its dark wing bars are thinner and shorter and its eyes are dark, giving it a gentle expression. It has got an iridescent neck patch, shining green or violet, and an orange and pink beak. Unlike its relatives, it breeds on holes and therefore tends to occur linked to mature trees in parks and tree lined avenues with large gardens, although it also uses nest boxes (a couple used the owl box in the tree outside our house a few years back).
 Today, a rapid, persistent almost hiccupy cooing (uh, cu-uc! uh, cu-uc!) of a Stock Dove came from the large cypresses next to the park conservatory and a bird alighted on top of a nest box, giving me a rare photo opportunity.