Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis) at Tétouan

Update 31 March 2013:

Rachid saw 3 Laughing Doves at Sidi Abdeslam, east of Tétouan but at a different location. Photo here.

Update 2 March 2013:

Rachid saw 5 indiviaduals at the same place where we saw one bird on 15 February (see below). The breeding is more likely, we will watch them closely during next weeks. This time he took some good photos:

Laughing Dove near Tétouan, 2 March 2013

Laughing Doves near Tétouan, 2 March 2013

15 February 2015

Yesterday, we saw a Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis, Tourterelle maillée, Tórtola senegalesa) at Sidi Abdeslam, some 7 Km to the east of Tétouan centre. The sighting was very brief and Rachid was only able to get 3 record shots from a distance. To our knowledge this is the first observation of this species in the Tangier Peninsula.

Laughing Dove has quickly colonised Morocco from western Algeria since the 1970s. Up until 2010, it has been observed nearly in the whole of Morocco with the exception of the Rif Mountains, high altitude in the Atlas Mountains and Tangier Peninsula. See the map of “Range of Laughing Dove in Morocco” (by M. Thévenot, 11 March 2010) reproduced in Hanane et al .2011 (Hanane S., Bergier P. & Thévenot M. 2011. La reproduction de la Tourterelle maillée Streptopelia senegalensis dans la plaine du Tadla (Maroc central) : analyse comparée avec la Tourterelle des bois Streptopelia turtur. Alauda 79: 17-28).

In the northern part of the country, it was only recorded before in eastern Morocco since 2004 (and started breeding in 2005) and along the Atlantic coast north to Larache where for instance Abdelhak Elbanak observed one on 24 June 2011. Whether Laughing Doves will start to breed during the next years or continue to wander around for some time, only time will tell us.

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Here are the photos (heavily cropped):

Laughing Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis) near Tétouan, 15 February 2015 (Photo: Rachid El Khamlichi)

Rachid El Khamlichi & Mohamed Amezian