Short answers, pulled from the story.
Two main factors drive the decline: changes in farming practices that reduced the availability of weed seeds and shoots, especially fumitory, and the hunting of birds in Mediterranean countries. A 2001 study cited by the European Commission estimated two to four million turtle doves are shot annually in Malta, Cyprus, France, Italy, Spain, and Greece.
The European turtle dove population in the United Kingdom has declined by 93% since 1994. Across Europe more broadly, numbers fell by 78% during the 1980-2013 period.
The Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus formally described the European turtle dove in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He originally placed it in the genus Columba under the name Columba turtur; the species was later moved to the genus Streptopelia, introduced in 1855 by the French ornithologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte.
The European turtle dove measures 26-28 cm in length, has a wingspan of 47-53 cm, and weighs 100-156 g. It has a blue-grey head and neck, cinnamon wings mottled with black, a vinaceous breast, red legs and eye rings, and a distinctive black-and-white-striped patch on the side of its neck.
After France, Spain, and Portugal enforced the 2021 European Commission hunting ban across the western Mediterranean, the western European breeding population increased by 25% in summer 2024. The ban was lifted in April 2025, with agreed restrictions on the number of birds allowed to be taken.
The bird's reputation for strong pair bonds, its mournful call, and repeated Biblical references made it an emblem of devoted love in European culture. The Song of Songs references the voice of the turtle dove at verse 2:12, and in Renaissance Europe the bird was envisaged as the faithful partner of the Phoenix. William Shakespeare used it in this symbolic role in his poem "The Phoenix and the Turtle".