Monday, May 4, 2015

Eurasian collared dove (ধবল ঘুঘু) - Streptopelia decaocto

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Bengali Name : Dhobol Ghughu (ধবল ঘুঘু), Dhushor Ghughu (ধুসর ঘুঘু).
Common Name : Eurasian collared dove, Indian collared dove.
Binomial/Scientific Name : Streptopelia decaocto
Family : Columbidae

আমাদের দেশে বেশ কয়েক রকমের ঘুঘু দেখতে পাওয়া যায়। তার মধ্যে একটি হলো এই ধুসর ঘুঘু বা ধবল ঘুঘু পাখি। অনেকে আবার একে ডাকে রাজ ঘুঘু নামে। আবার পাখিবিদরা বই এর ভাষায় এর নাম দিয়েছেন ইউরেশীয় কন্ঠীঘুঘু। অত্যন্ত সুন্দর ধুসর রঙের এই পাখিটির প্রিয় খাবার শস্য দানা। অলস দুপুরে গাছের উচু ডালে বা তারের উপরে বসে এক টানা ঘু-ঘুউউউউ-ঘু স্বরে ডেকে যায়। এক সময় প্রচুর দেখা গেলেও এখন এদের বিচরণ বাংলাদেশে কমতে শুরু করেছে। শিকারীদের দৌরাত্ব না কমানো গেলে আর কিছুদিন পরে এদেরকে আর এই দেশে খুজেই পাওয়া যাবেনা।

Our today's bird is the Eurasian collared dove which is a common bird in our Bangladesh and vastly seen before. But these days their count decreases for the heinous activities by the greedy hunters. This bird is also known as Indian collared dove or simply as Collared dove. In our country it has several Bengali names across the country such as Dhobol Ghughu (ধবল ঘুঘু), Raj Ghughu (রাজ ঘুঘু), Dhushor Ghughu (ধুসর ঘুঘু), etc. The bird experts have given the Bengali name as Eurashio Konthi Ghughu (ইউরেশীয় কণ্ঠী ঘুঘু) which is the literal translation of the English name Eurasian collared dove. Binomial name of this pretty bird is Streptopelia decaocto and it belongs to the family Columbidae where all the doves are residing. This bird is native to Asia and Europe.

Eurasian collared dove (ধবল ঘুঘু) is a beautiful bird which is having similar size like other doves. It is a common bird and slightly larger than a normal bird. The main color of the bird is greyish. The upper part of the wings are slightly darker compare to the the whole body. It has a black crescent ring at the back of the neck for which it is named as Eurasian collared dove. The lower part of the wing slightly black in color. Under tail of the bird is having a mixture of black and white. The color of the beak is black. The eyes are having a white outer circle. The legs are short and feet are pink/red in color. Both sexes are alike.

The call of the Eurasian collared dove (ইউরেশীয় কন্ঠীঘুঘু) is similar to any other doves which is ghu-ghu-ghu (ঘু-ঘু-ঘু). But it can make a different sound than other doves which is hah-hah or simply haaaaa. I heard this call when I was roaming around the forest inside the Sonarchor (সোনারচর). It was a silent forest and the call was really scary one on that particular situation. Initially I didn't know that it was a call of this bird.

Eurasian collared dove (ধুসর ঘুঘু) prefers to live around the human beings, specially where the food is easily available. They use to forage around the ground, grasses, and paddy fields after harvesting. They do it alone or with a pair (but in some countries they are found as a gregarious, but I have never seen that). They mainly feed on the grains. They make their nest on the small trees or lower branches of the trees. The female lays two eggs and incubate during the night whereas the male incubate the eggs during the day time.

This bird used to call continuously ghu-ghu-ghu (ঘু-ঘু-ঘু) from the high perched on a lazy noon in Bangladesh. But these days such lyrical call hearing is rare from this particular bird. This is because the avarice nature of the hunters around in Bangladesh. Though we have a law against such activities, but no one is listening about that. In fact sometimes the government's high official personnel join the party too with their air riffle.

Photos of this article were taken from the following locations of Bangladesh:

1) 07 November 2014: Nagorpur, Tangail (নাগরপুর, টাঙ্গাইল).
2) 20 December 2014: Sonarchor, Patuakhali (সোনারচর, পটুয়াখালী).
3) 21 December 2014: Kukri-mukri, Bhola (কুকরী-মুকরী, ভোলা).

This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog

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