Spotted Turtledove, Adelaide Zoo

Spotted Turtledove, Adelaide Zoo

The Spotted Turtledove is an introduced bird species in Australia. It has become common in many parts of the country, especially in our cities and larger towns. In some parts it is almost in pest numbers, taking valuable food and nesting materials from native species. Some people find its incessant cooing call to be very annoying, although I sometimes find it to be somewhat soothing – until it goes on for hours!

The bird shown in today’s photo was wandering around in the grounds of the Adelaide Zoo here in South Australia. It wasn’t part of the zoo’s excellent bird collection but was rather taking advantage of food left for animals on display – and food items dropped by careless human visitors.