Sandringham Estate, managed by King Charles, has joined a nationwide program to reintroduce captive‑bred turtle doves after the species fell 98% since 1994. The estate’s grounds were chosen for their suitable habitat, where the birds can establish breeding pairs.
The Turtle Dove Captive Breeding to Release Project, founded in 2018 by Trevor and Deborah Lay, and the Turtle Dove Trust, launched in 2019, have produced the birds that now return to East Anglia and Lincolnshire. In September 2024, 135 more young doves were delivered to Sandringham as part of a broader 606‑bird distribution across eight UK enclosures.
Financial backing from the estate—£6,000 in cash and the provision of feed—has underpinned the project’s logistics, while wardens on the estate handled the actual release, ensuring the birds find suitable nesting sites. The initiative aligns with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s findings that adult doves produce half as many chicks as in the 1970s, emphasizing the urgency of restocking.
The species’ decline, now a 98% drop per the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, is the steepest among 119 bird species monitored in the Breeding Bird Survey. The national survey estimated only 2,092 breeding territories in 2021, translating to roughly 1,000 pairs in the wild, underscoring the critical nature of the release effort.
The next release is slated for September 2024, when the estate will receive an additional cohort of 135 doves. That cohort will join the 606 juvenile birds already distributed to UK holding and release sites, a step that could raise the UK turtle dove population by 30% in the next decade.