The laughing dove (Spilopelia senegalensis) is a small pigeon that is a resident breeder in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Western Australia where it has established itself in the wild after being released from Perth Zoo in 1898.

[2] This small long-tailed dove is found in dry scrub and semi-desert habitats where pairs can often be seen feeding on the ground.

It is closely related to the spotted dove (Spilopelia chinensis) which is distinguished by a white and black chequered necklace.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the laughing dove in his six volume Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal.

He used the French name La tourterelle à gorge tachetée du Sénégal and the Latin Tutur gutture maculato senegalensis.

[3] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[4] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Columba senegalensis and cited Brisson's work.

It is also found in Cyprus, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the UAE, and Turkey (these populations may be derived from human introductions).

[17] Laughing doves eat the fallen seeds, mainly of grasses, other vegetable matter and small ground insects such as termites and beetles.

Their flight is quick and direct with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings characteristic of pigeons in general.

[28] Feral populations in Australia are sometimes infected by a virus that causes symptoms similar to that produced in parrots by psittacine beak and feather disease.

[31] Southern grey shrike have been observed preying on an adult laughing dove in northwestern India while the lizard buzzard is a predator of the species in Africa.