Turtle Dove photographed at Mont Marche on 8/10/2012 Photo: © Adrian Gidney (visit site)

Turtle Doves are associated with agriculture and prefer warm dry conditions. They occur in all the islands on both spring and autumn passage with a few pairs remaining to breed in Guernsey. Smith 1878 described the bird as a regular but probably never very numerous summer visitant. The status has deteriorated and now maybe only 1-2 singing birds are recorded in spring..

The first northward migrants are often found in fields on the south coast during the last week of April. Small flocks or individual birds are then reported throughout the island in May and early June. Regular sites for singing birds include the Fauxquets and Talbot Valleys, Silbe Reserve and the South coast valleys of Corbiere and La Prevote. In Normandy the species is widespread as a breeding bird occurring in 85% of the atlas squares between 1985-1988.

In autumn, individuals and small flocks are often to be found at Pleinmont where they remain for a few days. Most records are of single birds or of pairs, the largest flock in recent years was of fourteen birds at Pleinmont on the 24th September 2000.

There is a very unusual mid winter record , a bird at Pont Vaillant in December 2004 and January 2005, associating with Collared Doves.

Mainly a spring migrant in Alderney large flocks of up to 80 birds passed through in the mid and late seventies. Numbers have dropped since this time with small groups now reported. There have been no autumn records in recent years.

The Turtle Dove is a passage migrant to Sark and is believed to have bred but there is no evidence to support this claim.