Laughing Dove

The Laughing Dove is a small, slim, gentle-looking dove with warm pinkish-brown underparts and a blue-grey patch on the upper wing. Its most distinctive feature is a patch of black feathers finely speckled with rufous across the upper breast, resembling a fine necklace, which fades into the plainer pink-brown of the lower breast and belly.

Native to Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, the species has become established as an introduced bird around Perth in Western Australia, where it now thrives in parks, gardens, and open urban and semi-rural areas. Its soft, bubbling, laugh-like call gives the species its common name.

Key field marks

• Warm pinkish-brown underparts fading to paler belly
• Black patch finely speckled with rufous across the upper breast, like a beaded necklace
• Blue-grey patch on the upper wing coverts
• Slim build with a proportionally long tail

Similar species

• Spotted Dove is larger with a bold black-and-white spotted neck patch rather than a fine rufous-speckled necklace.
• Diamond Dove is much smaller with a distinct red eye-ring and lacks the necklace patch entirely.

Habitat

Uses open woodland, farmland, scrub, and especially parks, gardens, and other urban and semi-urban green spaces.

Range

Native across much of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia; introduced and now established in and around Perth, Western Australia.

Migration

Sedentary and non-migratory throughout its range.

Behavior

Usually seen alone, in pairs, or small groups, foraging on open ground and readily tolerating human presence in gardens and urban areas.

Voice

A soft, bubbling, chuckling series of coos that has earned the species its common name, often rendered as a rolling, laugh-like phrase.

Feeding

Forages on the ground for seeds and grain, walking steadily while pecking at fallen seed.

Nesting

Builds a flimsy platform nest of twigs in a shrub or tree; lays 2 white eggs.