Laughing Dove (Spilopelia senegalensis) lives in dry scrub and semi-desert across Africa, Middle East, South Asia, Western Australia. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
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A real field recording of the Laughing Dove, made in the wild.
The laughing dove first appeared in Western Australia after birds escaped from Perth Zoo in 1898, and soon after a self-sustaining wild population was established. It now breeds as a resident throughout the region, favouring dry scrub and semi-desert landscapes where pairs are regularly seen foraging on the ground. The species was originally introduced to Perth in 1889, and its numbers have since spread across suitable habitat in the state.
The laughing dove's vocalisation is a chuckling call that sounds like a low rolling "croo-doo-doo-doo-doo" with a rising and falling amplitude. Observers note that this call is more musical than the typical coo of most doves, giving it an effervescent quality that sets it apart from the classic cooing of other pigeon species. This distinctive sound is a reliable field clue to the bird's presence in its arid habitats.
In Turkey a single laughing-dove pair has been recorded raising seven successive broods in the same nest, a feat made possible by the almost year-round breeding season there. The species' spread-out breeding period allows multiple clutches, and both parents share duties of nest building, incubation and feeding. Such prolific breeding demonstrates how the dove can exploit favourable conditions to produce several generations in a single year.
Feral laughing doves in Australia sometimes carry a virus that produces symptoms akin to psittacine beak and feather disease in parrots.
Exhausted individuals have been found landing on ships in the Arabian Sea, and such landings can transport the bird to new regions. Birds that land on ships may be introduced to new regions.
Sources
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RangeAfrica, Middle East, South Asia, Western Australia
HabitatDry scrub and semi-desert
DietSeeds and grains
About the Laughing Dove
As the sun rises over the savannah, the Laughing Dove stirs, its gentle, mournful call echoing across the grasslands like a soft, melancholic sigh. With wings a soft blur, it takes to the skies, its delicate form undulating through the air with a quiet elegance, as if borne on the whispers of the wind. In its effortless, loping flight, the Laughing Dove embodies a serene and peaceful presence, a fleeting glimpse of which is a privilege to behold.
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