Ringneck Dove

Looks how to spot one

Feathered; a slim, medium-small dove with a longish tail

The classic colour is a soft, warm creamy buff to fawn, a little rosier on the head and breast, with a narrow black half-collar across the back of the neck that gives the bird its name. The eyes are ruby red, the bill is dark, and the legs and feet are pinkish to purplish red. Sexes look alike; cocks are usually picked out by their cooing and bowing display rather than their colour.346

Personality what they are like

A peaceful, good-natured dove that settles easily into home life. Birds kept in pairs tend to focus on each other and are content without much handling, while a single hand-tamed dove happily bonds with its person and enjoys daily company. It is not a climber or a chewer like a parrot; instead it walks, flutters and coos. Two cocks sharing a cage can squabble, so a male-female pair or two hens is the easy mix.465

Daily activity how busy a day looks

A flier rather than a climber, so it needs room to flap and fly from perch to perch and enjoys walking about on the floor. Time out of the cage in a safe room, or a spacious flight or aviary, keeps it fit.45

Grooming and care the hands-on bits

Offer a chance to bathe every day, in a shallow dish of water or with a light misting; some doves even like to share a shower. Provide perches of several diameters for foot health and keep the cage floor clean, since doves spend time on the ground.645

Home where they are happiest

Length and width matter more than height. One pet-care guide suggests at least about 90 x 90 x 90 cm (3 ft each way) for a pair and about 60 x 60 x 60 cm (2 ft) for a single tame bird, with bars no more than about 2 cm (3/4 in) apart. Aviaries and mixed collections with other peaceful birds also suit them well. A comfortable room temperature of roughly 18-24 C (65-75 F) is recommended indoors. Domestic doves should never be released outdoors, as they rarely cope in the wild.653

Food basics what goes in the bowl

A seed-based diet: a dove or pigeon mix, or a budgie-sized seed mix with larger grains such as cracked corn, wheat, oat groats and safflower. Pellets can add balanced nutrition. Offer dark leafy greens and some vegetables and fruit several times a week, egg food once or twice a week, and calcium such as cuttlebone, especially for breeding hens. Grit must always be available because doves swallow seeds whole without hulling them.6345

Company who they like around

Social birds that love living in pairs. A pair keeps itself company and needs little hands-on attention; a lone dove needs daily time with its owner. A male-female pair will breed readily, often laying in any handy spot, so plan for eggs if you keep a mixed pair.46

The story where it all began

The ringneck dove is one of the oldest domesticated birds, bred from the African collared dove of the Sahel and southern Arabia. Exactly when this happened is unclear: sources range from over a thousand years to two or three thousand years ago, and it may have reached Italy from North Africa by the late 1500s. Carl Linnaeus gave it the scientific name Columba risoria in 1758, choosing a Latin word meaning 'laughing', a nod to its chuckling coo. Over the centuries it became the most commonly kept pet dove, and dove fanciers greatly expanded its range of colours in the late twentieth century, partly by crossing back to wild African collared doves. Its steady, predictable courtship and parenting made it a favourite animal for science too, notably in Daniel Lehrman's mid-twentieth-century studies of how hormones and experience shape reproductive behaviour. White ringneck doves are also the doves most often seen in stage magic acts, and the white dove has become a worldwide symbol of peace.1364758

Recognised by the official bits

Taxonomy

Named Columba risoria by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Whether it is a separate species or simply the domestic form of the African collared dove is debated, because it interbreeds freely with its wild ancestor.1

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN)

In 2008 the ICZN favoured using the name risoria for the wild African collared dove as well, but major checklists such as the IOC World Bird List and Clements have kept the name roseogrisea for the wild bird.1

IUCN Red List / CITES (wild ancestor)

The wild African collared dove is listed as Least Concern and is on CITES Appendix III.2