Oriental Turtle-Dove - St. Lawrence Island, Alaska

On 7 October Peter Scully found an ABA Code-4 Oriental Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia orientalis) on Gambell, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.

This is an Asian species breeding across much of Siberia to Southeast Asia (ABA Checklist, Seventh Edition, Pranty et al., Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 4) and wintering mainly in India and southeastern Asia.  It occupies a variety of habitats from boreal forests to tropical forests.  They feed mostly on the ground in rice fields and where other cereal grains are planted and on bamboo shoots and other green shoots. Good photographs of this species can be found on page 380 of The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America.