Eurasian collared doves

Roper

Roper

Idiot Savant, still
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I just finished reading an article about them in my new Project Upland magazine. It’s rather intriguing, with no season and no limits. Sounds to me like a great way to do some sports shooting and stock the freezer with protein. So in the spring, I think I’m gonna be doing a little scouting for them. But I’m interested if any of you have any experience hunting them. I’m torn between using an air rifle or a shotgun. It seems easy enough to distinguish them from mourning doves.
 
I got several of them around the house here. They started out as just a couple, now there's a dozen or more. I thought maybe one of my neighbors was keeping them and letting them fly free from time to time, still I don't know for sure. Very easy to distinguish from Mourning doves, the collar, generally lighter colored, and a bit bigger. Definitley invasive, so like feral pigs, kill'em and eat'm. They love bird feeders, might make for a sporting addition to porch sittin' and whisky with a pellet gun, assuming a safe backstop.
 
Why wait till spring, there's a chit ton of them around now, easy to identify especially the the black band on the back of the neck.
There is no shortage of them
 
I probably have two dozen mourning doves on and under my bird feeder as we speak. Unfortunately, no hunting allowed where I live.
 
They have crowded-out the once-thriving Mourning Doves around here. Collareds seem to adapt readily to residential areas. And they call incessantly . . .
 
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Jim F. said:
They have crowded-out the once-thriving Mourning Doves around here. Collards seem to adapt readily to residential areas. And they call incessantly . . .
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I rarely see Mourning Doves in Ephrata anymore but there's plenty of the Eurasian Collared critters around; they nest (I think) in two large spruce trees in my neighbors yard. I've never hunted doves so handn't considered shooting a collared dove; protien, huh! They're very wary birds.
 
I’ve hunted them before with a .22 as opposed to a shotgun because they are sketchy and I was unable to get close enough with a shotgun. Didn’t have any luck with a .22 either. They would fly away with the first shot.
 
Aren’t they mostly a central eastern Washington bird? I’ve not seen nor heard any in the Everett area.
 
Roper said:
Aren’t they mostly a central eastern Washington bird? I’ve not seen nor heard any in the Everett area.
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They are around Western Washington, but I don't know where in numbers to hunt them. For a while I was seeing some around my place in West Seattle, but have not recently. I also semi-regularly see them scattered around the Snoqualmie Valley. It seems pretty easy to distinguish them from mourning doves to me. I grew up seeing mourning doves all my life and the collared doves just look different, like "gee that is kind of an odd dove" because it is not a mourning dove, definitely larger. I really like eating dove breasts. Wrap in a half slice of bacon, spear with a toothpick and grill.
 
My general experience with them in central WA, is that they tend to hang out in suburban, rural suburban areas, and not typically where you would want to use a shotgun. I don't see them at all when I'm hunting, but I do see Mourning doves, so it's a bit frustrating.
 
They like sunflower seeds. I could shoot them off my back deck with a slingshot. There's a half dozen regulars at our feeder, not sure how fast more would move in if we harvested these.
 
When you see them chilling on a utility pole outside your house they are easy to ID, but I find it's really easy to be unsure when they're zooming overhead at mach chicken while I'm out pheasant hunting. It's pretty rare that I'm sure enough which flavor I am seeing fly by to take a shot at them outside Mourning Dove season.

I just ordered a padded seat for a five gallon bucket, so Imma be dove hunting in style next fall. :D
 
In the summer of 2010, I observed The ECD in southern southeast Alaska for the first time. I knew they weren't Mourning Doves but didn't know what they were. So, I consulted my trusty bird book by Roger Tory Peterson. I found them there but Peterson described their range (paraphrasing from memory) as "isolated populations have established themselves in the Los Angeles area." I then looked at the publication date and found it to be sometime in the 80s. So, it had taken them about 25 years to make it that far north (roughly 1,700-1,800 miles). Area birders also reported seeing them on other islands in the region.

Their numbers are much much less here now than they were then. It's uncommon to see them now but for a few years they were all over the place.

I always thought squab on toast would be a great use for them but never did try it. I think it's a good idea.
 
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