Is this the most invisible bird in Britain?
Some birds are showy and you see them all the time. Some birds make a spectacle of themselves and gather in their thousands. Some birds are raucous and are always heard. And some, well, they seem nearly invisible.
If it wasn’t for a very distant memory of a page in a childhood bird book I wouldn’t have known that Stock Doves even existed. Here’s one, delicately poised in a country park in Devon. It’s waiting to feel safe before descending to the ground underneath a bird feeder, where smaller, messier birds have let their food tumble:
I’ve seen one here before:
The iridescence on their necks is exquisite.
There are over 250,000 territories in the UK. Who would have guessed? Is this Britain’s most invisible bird?