Stock Dove Columba oenas
Summer abundance 1995–2000
Common and increasing resident of parkland, downland, wood edges, farmland with trees and barns, locally towns
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Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2013
Atlas species lists
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More Stock Dove maps
- Breeding distribution 1995–2000
- Summer abundance 1995–2000
- Winter distribution 1995–2000
- Winter abundance 1995–2000
- Breeding distribution 2007–2012
- Summer abundance 2007–2012
- Winter distribution 2007–2012
- Winter abundance 2007–2012
- Breeding distribution change
- Summer abundance change
- Winter distribution change
- Winter abundance change
More maps for this atlas
Map explanation
This map shows the summer relative abundance of the species in Wiltshire, based on variation from the average, as revealed by the fieldwork for Birds of Wiltshire (Wiltshire Ornithological Society 2007).
Key
Relative to average
Nos tetrads
>50% fewer
128
14%
25-50% fewer
164
18%
Average +/- 25%
177
19%
25-100% more
110
12%
>100% more
80
9%
Total
659
72%
Stock Doves breed from Morocco, throughout much of Europe and western Asia, north to southern Fenno-Scandia and central Russia, thence into western Siberia and locally in central Asia. The western and southern European populations are essentially sedentary, while those from northern and central Europe migrate southwest and south to winter in the north Mediterranean and south Caspian regions. During the 20th century the migratory populations seriously declined as did the mainly sedentary populations in Spain, France, Croatia and Bulgaria.
In the more northerly countries of western Europe however, including The Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain, the spread of arable farming has led to continuing increases since the late 19th century. They are widespread in most of England and Wales though they remain comparatively scarce in fringe areas such as west Wales and Cornwall and are absent from much of Scotland.
Records of Stock Doves in Wiltshire from the 19th and 20th centuries tend to be patchy and generalised ("a common resident" "resident throughout the county" etc) and it is difficult to detect trends."Birds of Wiltshire" recorded them in summer in 708 tetrads, with confirmed or probable breeding in 324. WTA2 recorded their summer presence in 651 tetrads, an 8% reduction, while the number of tetrads where they were recorded breeding fell by nearly 4%, to 312. The winter surveys on the other hand recorded them in 48% of tetrads surveyed in Birds of Wiltshire and 58% in WTA2 - an increase of 21%.
References
The following references are used throughout these species accounts, in the abbreviated form given in quotation marks:
“1968-72 Breeding Atlas” – Sharrack, J.T.R. 1976: The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1981-84 Winter Atlas” – Lack, P.C. 1986: The Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland. T. & A. Poyser
“1988-91 Breeding Atlas” – Gibbons, D.W., Reid, J.B. & Chapman, R.A. 1993: The New Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland 1988-91. T. & A. Poyser
“Birds of Wiltshire” – Ferguson-Lees, I.J. et al. 2007 : Birds of Wiltshire, published by the tetrad atlas group of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society after mapping fieldwork 1995-2000. Wiltshire Ornithological Society.
“Bird Atlas 2007-2011” – Balmer, D.E., Gillings, S., Caffrey, B.J., Swann, R.L., Downie, I.S. and Fuller, R.J. 2013: Bird Atlas 2007-2011: the Breeding and Wintering Birds of Britain and Ireland
“WTA2” – ("Wiltshire Tetrad Atlas 2 ") the present electronic publication, bringing together the Wiltshire data from “Birds of Wiltshire” and “Bird Atlas 2007-11”, together with data from further fieldwork carried out in 2011 and 2012.
"Hobby" - the annual bird report of the Wiltshire Ornithological Society.