Updated August 19, 2025
Quick ID: Laughing Dove
| Length | 25 - 27 cm |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 40 - 45 cm |
| Weight | Male 150-196 g, female 125-196 g |
| Field mark | characteristic dark collar |
| Voice | coos, swelling the neck |
| Habitat | dry bushes and semi-desert environments |
| When present | Rare resident |
| Diet | Mostly seeds but also some invertebrates |
The Laughing dove is a small bird that lives in the sub-Saharan regions of the African continent, in the Middle East and as far as India. This small dove and its long tale are often found in dry bushes and semi-desert environments, where the inseparable couples of laughing doves can be seen eating on the ground. It’s distinguishable from the other species of doves thanks tot the characteristic dark collar that gives the pattern and by its unique call. Also called Senegal Dove, Palm Dove and Little Brown Dove in India, when introduced to Western Australia it adapted very well and established itself in the Perth and Fremantle areas.
Everything You Need To Know About The Laughing Dove:
Obviously like all the other doves also the male of laughing dove coos, therefore, we can more easily recognize it than the female by this typical behavior, made by the call emitted by swelling the neck and addressed to his partner. Fortunately, his verse is not as strong as that of the common Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis), of which it is a close relative.
Laughing doves are extremely popular as domestic birds. They are easy to breed, keeping an eye on the need of this bird to have a varied diet with fruits, but without exaggerating. They are birds that need large spaces, therefore it is recommended to breed them in rather voluminous aviaries, but they also lend themselves to being raised in freedom, providing them with the right shelter made with special wooden boxes hung with feeders and water.
Docile species that coexists with all peaceful and small-sized species. It is necessary to be careful to introduce other subjects in your breeding, making sure that they are free of some diseases, given the speed of contagion, a short hospitalization of new subjects is recommended.
Quick Facts:
- Scientific name – Spilopelia senegalensis
- Weight – Male 150-196 g, female 125-196 g
- Length – 25 – 27 cm
- Wingspan – 40 – 45 cm
- Age – Between 5 and 10 years.
- Diet – Mostly seeds but also some invertebrates.
- Habitat – Cities and villages with thick hedges.
- Threats – Food and sport hunting, as well as traps for pet trade are the threats of this bird, but this species has an extremely wide range and it’s therefore not considered under threat. In fact, in some instances, it has been observed how actually the laughing dove benefited enormously from habitat disturbance and variations in the land use. Sometimes nests placed on fruit trees next to palm trees can be predated by some of the rats finding refuge on palm trees, in particular the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) often goes and steal the eggs of the laughing dove from the nest. This type of attack seems to be directed to the eggs, sparing the nestlings, this explains the increase in the survival rate with the age of the chicks.
1. Aspect
Smaller than the Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto), the head, chest and upper part of the belly are deep pink, broad reddish collar which on the upper part of the chest is sprayed with black, the back is brown, grey-blue wings with dark flight feathers, the tail is dark with white sides. Fast but fluttering flight, with dark, almost black underwing. It can sing for hours, usually from highly visible and audible locations.
2. Distribution
In nature, its distribution range expands from most of sub-Saharan Africa, to North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, north-east Libya and the Nile valley in Egypt), to the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, to the Middle East (Iraq, Iran), to the Indian peninsula, even reaching the area of the former Soviet republics (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan). It has also been introduced in Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Malta and western Australia.
From this derives the presence of 5 geographic subspecies (4 African and one Asian), of which the typical sub-species (Streptopelia senegalensis senegalensis) and the one present in our aviaries certainly; as we have known for some years now the only species to be easily imported are the African ones. Anyway it is also certainly the most chromatically appreciable, given that the colors are more vivid and contrasting, the purplish pink chest and neck and head, the copper-red feather collar with the white black specks …
Rare resident, at the moment, in Europe, it’s present only in western Turkey. Partially migratory species; in some areas of Africa it performs seasonal movements.
3. Diet
It is a predominantly granivorous bird and it feeds on herbaceous plant seeds that it collects on the ground. It also frequents the cultivated fields of wheat and millet. From time to time it also enjoys feeding on larvae, termites, snails and other insects.
4. Breeding
It forms stable couples that last for a lifetime. The bowing behavior of the male is very rapid and at the height of the bow he keeps the body almost horizontal to show the characteristic design of the collar to the female. Mating is preceded by reciprocal exchanges of care with the beak. the nest is built in trees or bushes or in sheltered places in the corners of buildings. The female will lay here two white eggs which are incubated for 13-15 days, by the male during the day and by the female at night.
5. Conservation
Distributed over about 64,000,000 square kilometers and with a global population of about 2,500,000 to 8,300,000 individuals and an overall population trend consider to be stable, it’s no wonder that the laughing dove is reported as common in many places within its wide range.
With a very large range of expansion, this species doesn’t even approach the limits to be considered as Vulnerable, under a criterion of range size. Also the population trend appears to be stable, so under this criterion as well the laughing dove is not over the vulnerability threshold, same goes for the population size, which is estimated to be extremely large, hence there’s no reason to think the population size is close to being Vulnerable. For all these reasons, in the IUCN’s Red List, the Laughing dove is classified as Least Concern (LC).
Federico Fiorillo is an Italian nature guide and content writer based in the magnificent Val de Bagnes, Switzerland. He’s an avid hiker and snowboarder and he travels to the great wilderness areas of the world to see the wildlife and birds he’s passionate about.
In 2008 and 2011 he joined two Brazilian wildlife field trips in Bahia and decided that observing birds in their habitat was going to be one of his driving passions. He completed a birdwatching course with EBN Italia in 2013, and then in 2014 and 2015 he travelled to South East Asia, Australia and the United States where he joined a photographic workshop at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in Utah.
From 2016 to 2018 he lives in New Zealand, where he collaborates in environmental projects at the Otorohanga Kiwi House, which since 1971 protects kiwi and other New Zealand native birds, among the projects he worked hands on the most rewarding was the one aiming to release Brown Kiwis into the wild.
In 2017, he completes a backcountry survival course obtaining the skillsets needed to thrive in-stead of just survive in the face of adversity in the wilderness. In 2017 he also joins a NZ Bird Photography Tour in Ulva Island and at the Royal Albatross Center of the Otago Peninsula, home to the world’s only mainland Royal Albatross breeding colony.
After his travels across the South Pacific, following his experiences in 2018 he moves in the Swiss Alps where he’s now a nature guide leading tours in the alpine region between Switzerland, Italy and France. Leading nature walks and overnight hiking trips, teaching tourists and locals the secrets of the plants and animals living in this alpine region.
Inspired by an alternative lifestyle he believes in the importance of being in connection with the natural environment and feels the responsibility of interpreting the natural wealth of a site, educating and informing other of the different aspects of that particular area.
I have two Senegalese doves that were sold to me as a pair with the female marked with a blue marker to tell the difference. The person who sold me these birds has been raising doves for over 30 years. No eggs and I have had them for 5 or 6 months! No preening, no cooing, no mating!! Have I two males?
Have laughing dove arriving when young, not fully feathered, on upstairs kitchen windowsill. Here for months, now bringing sticks onto windowsill & tapping tinted window with it & reacts to speech, without distress. No sign of mate or any other bird around. Spends most of time around yard. Concerned becoming too domesticated by our presence.