European turtle dove

Where the tracked European turtle doves are now

Each dot is one tagged bird's most recent position.

About European turtle doves

The soft, rolling turrr-turrr of the turtle dove is a sound Europe very nearly lost: Germany has shed almost 90% of its breeding pairs since 1980, and the Netherlands is down to somewhere between 600 and 900. It is the only dove of central Europe that is a true long-distance migrant, leaving a Dutch hedgerow to cross the Sahara and winter in the Sahel, some 5,000 km away.

How European turtle doves migrate

Turtle doves from Germany and the Low Countries take the western flyway: south-west across France and Iberia, over the Strait of Gibraltar, then across the Sahara to the Sahel. Departure runs from late July to early October, and tracking puts the southward journey at roughly 5,000 km and 31 days on average, with long refuelling stops in southern Europe so that birds reach Africa as the rains end and the vegetation is at its richest. The return is faster — 20 to 25 days, with a stop in Morocco to build reserves — and they are back on the breeding grounds from mid-April into May. Unlike so many European migrants, this one has not started wintering closer to home; it remains a full trans-Saharan traveller. Its great recent change is a rebound instead: after France, Spain and Portugal suspended hunting in 2021, the western European breeding population grew by 40% — around 615,000 pairs — in three years, before limited hunting resumed in 2025.

Key facts

Length

25–28 cm

Wingspan

45–53 cm (sources differ)

Leaves

Late July to early October; most German birds by the end of September, Dutch birds mainly September–October

Returns

Mid or late April into mid-May

Winters in

The Sahel south of the Sahara, reached via Iberia and Morocco

Changing habits

No short-stopping at all — still a full trans-Saharan migrant. The change is a rebound: +40% in western Europe between 2021 and 2024 after a hunting moratorium

Population

600–900 pairs in the Netherlands (2018–2020), down 96% since 1990; 12,500–29,000 in Germany, Red List category 2. Both counts predate the 2021–2024 recovery

Is migration happening right now?

Weather radar over the Benelux and Germany measures how many birds are aloft, updated every five minutes. See it for Belgium, the Netherlands or Germany, or watch every tagged bird on the live map.