The European Turtle Dove, Streptopelia turtur, is a vulnerable member of the family Columbidae which includes doves and pigeons.

A three-year moratorium on the legal hunting of Turtle Doves in Spain, Portugal and France has led to an estimated three million of these migrating birds not being slaughtered. Numbers fell by 73% in Europe between 1980 and 2013, with hunting being one of several reasons for this. Apparently they taste like duck, although they have little meat on them.

The Turtle Dove is a migratory species with a western Palearctic range covering most of Europe and the Middle East, including Turkey and north Africa. It winters south of the Sahara.

It is slightly smaller than many other doves, and measures 26–28 cm (10–11 in) in length with a 47–53 cm (19–21 in) wingspan.

The mature bird has a blue-grey head, neck, flanks and rump and the wings are cinnamon, mottled with black. The breast is wine-red, the abdomen and under tail coverts are white. The bill is black, the legs and eye rings are red. The black and white patch on the side of the neck is absent in the browner and duller juveniles.

Hopefully numbers will recover sufficiently to see more than the odd individual or pair each year.