The turtle dove is the most rapidly declining migratory bird in Europe and the UK, with its purring song disappearing from the countryside as habitat loss, hunting on migration, and climate change combine to drive it toward extinction.
Turtle dove welfare is undermined by pressures at every point of the annual cycle. Loss of seed-rich habitats on UK farmland means breeding birds cannot find sufficient food to raise chicks. Legal hunting of hundreds of thousands of birds on the Mediterranean flyway depletes the population. Sahel drought reduces wintering food availability. No single measure can save the species; only coordinated international action across the entire flyway can reverse the collapse.