The woodpigeon, Columba palumbus, has been native to Great Britain for centuries, its cousin in mainland Europe is migratory but we have the only sedentary population of the species that exists.  We probably have as many as 15-20 million birds in the UK. 

The population is healthy, the bird breeds at least twice, and in good warm summers three times, a year and they lay two eggs at a time.  It has been guesstimated that we shoot around a third of this increasing population and more than 200,000 people hunt the woodpigeon in the UK every year.

The woodpigeon is easy to recognise; a delicate grey overall with white wing bars and, in the adults, a white neck band.  The underside of the body is a rich mixture of colours from pink to mauve.  A bright yellow eye, a wingspan of just over two feet and an extraordinary capacity for aerobatics which can leave the decoyer with two empty cartridges and nothing in the bag more often than you would believe.  Our bird weighs around 20 ounces and is capable of more than 50 miles an hour in level flight. 

By the way, if the bird you are aiming at has no white wing bars don't even attempt to shoot it, it is most likely a stock dove and protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act.