HUNTING HORIZONS - Worldwide Hunting Seasons Database

The Stock Pigeon or Stock Dove [Columba oenas] is a migrant in the northern part of its European and western Asiatic range; elsewhere it is a well distributed and often plentiful resident.


The Stock Dove is sociable as well as gregarious, often flocking with Wood Pigeons, though it is the presence of food which brings them together.


LENGTH: 30-34 cm
WEIGHT: 290-330 g
WINGSPAN: 60-70 cm


The appearance of the Stock Dove is grey and its wing bars incomplete, at close range a splash of iridescent green and purple on the side of the neck is visible, there is a broad black band on the tip of the tail. The bill has a blood-red base and the legs and feet are reddish pink. In flight, Stock Doves reveal a distinctive black double wing bar.


HABITAT: The haunts of the Stock Dove are in more or less open country, for though it often nests in trees it prefers parklands to thick woods, it is also common on coasts where the cliffs provide holes they are also found in wooded areas including parkland and large gardens.


FEEDING: Most of its food is vegetable; young shoots and seedlings are favoured, and it will take grain as well as insects and snails.
CALL: The Stock Dove's cooing song recalls other pigeons but the disyllabic note 'oo-ooo-ooh' with the second note accented, is often repeated, growing both louder and higher in tone until reaching a crescendo, it is loud enough to be described, somewhat fancifully, as 'roaring'.


FLIGHT: Its flight is quick, performed by regular beats, with an occasional sharp flick of the wings, characteristic of pigeons in general. During the circling spring flight the wings are smartly cracked like a whip.