Few turtle doves: Birds on the brink of extinction in the UK as numbers plummet by 98 per cent

It is, according to the familiar Christmas carol, of particular significance on the second day of Christmas.

But a new study shows that the turtle dove is verging on extinction in the UK following a 98 per cent decline in numbers over the past three decades.

Numbers here are now at historical lows, down to just over 2,092 of the birds left in the wild, according to a report from the government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

The JNCC collects statistics on UK breeding bird species along with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the British Trust for Ornithology.

‘The population trend for Turtle Dove in the UK is one of sharp decline, with a 98 per cent reduction since 1994,’ the report said.

‘Of the 119 species monitored by BBS, Turtle Dove shows the largest UK decline of any species over the period of monitoring.’

Yet all may not be lost. Conservationists now hope that the dove could soon start recovering in numbers in the UK, due to a ban on hunting the birds in western Europe in France, Spain and Portugal which began in 2021.

Prior to 2018, around one million turtle doves were being hunted each autumn across these three countries alone.

Numbers here are now at historical lows, down to just over 2,092 of the birds left in the wild, according to a report from the government’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Stock image)

Now numbers in western Europe are bouncing back, with a study this year estimating that the population of breeding pairs has risen by 25 per cent – 400,000 breeding pairs – to 1.96million breeding pairs of the birds.

Rick Bayne, Senior Project Manager of Operation Turtle Dove at the RSPB, which is dedicated to the bird’s recovery said, ‘The recent increase in Turtle Dove numbers across western Europe as a whole is really exciting news, making our conservation efforts here in the UK for these birds all the more worthwhile.’

Mr Bayne said that 2024 was the ‘fourth year of no hunting in France, Spain and Portugal; the same countries through which all Turtle Doves breeding in Western Europe – included all that breed in the UK – migrate.

‘This means that now is the time to really double-down on our efforts and make sure we provide even more nesting and feeding habitat in the UK so that more and more of us can enjoy the summer purring call of this wonderful bird.’

The RSPB said that as a result of the hunting ban, more turtle doves are predicted to reach the UK, where they will raise more chicks of their own to boost numbers.

The ‘recovery wave’ of turtle doves will take time to reach the UK, as it is at the northern edge of the western European population, but the RSPB predicts ‘reach us it will’.

Turtle dove numbers fell in the UK due to a loss of farmland habitat features such as tall wide hedgerows and wildflower meadows – but work by farmers in the UK to restore such features could provide more places for the birds to nest.

The birds spend their winters in Africa, and fly across sub-Saharan Africa towards France, Spain and Portugal in the spring. They have been associated with the festive period since arund 1780 when the best-known version of The Twelve Days of Christmas first emerged.

In the song, the narrator’s ‘true love’ presents a gift of a pair of the birds on the second day of Christmas.

Dr Guy Anderson, Migratory Birds Programme Manager from the RSPB said work by farmers and others to restore nature means ‘we can look forward to watching the UK breeding population recovering too.’