Stock Dove

Description:

The smallest, the scarcest and the most discreet of three European pigeons. About 30cm in length, mainly pale blue-grey with pale red-wine coloured chest, and distinctive green iridescent neck patch. Main difference from Rock dove are the small, discreet, blackish wing patches - whereas the Rock dove sports two distinctive black full wing bars. Legs are reddish, while the bill is reddish with a yellow tip. Sexes are similar, while juveniles would be uniformly grey, lacking colours on chest and neck.

Habitat:

Seen in lowland open countryside, in agricultural fields in Geneva lake valley. These fields are surrounded by grasslands and patches of deciduous forests (quite decimated forest though); with few smaller towns not too far either.

Notes:

1. The Stock dove used to be the most common European pigeon. It became the rarest because of habitat destruction and deforestation. 2. For more information about this bird, I recommend the second reference added to this spotting - an excellent article (in french) on oiseaux.net. 3. A lifer for me - actually, I did see it few times before in other regions of France, but never shot a pic. Because of that, I count it as a lifer.