Eurasian collared doves get their name from the black ‘collar’ pattern on their feathers. They are slightly larger than the mourning dove, which is native to the U.S. This bird was introduced in the Bahamas and the Lesser Antilles when a few pet birds inadvertently escaped or were released. By the 1980s this dove had dispersed from the Caribbean and colonized southern Florida. Since then they have continued to expand their range explosively in the U.S. It only took until the end of the 1900s for the birds to have spread to the west coast states of Oregon and Washington. At the same time, the bird was spreading west from its native Bay of Bengal region, and can now be found throughout Europe.

these birds are considered an invasive species in Oregon because they do not naturally occur here. Invasive species are a threat to animals native to the region because they can out-compete them for resources, or introduce diseases that the native species have not been exposed to and may not have the ability to fight off.