The laughing dove is a small, thin bird with a brown and grey plumage. It has a patch of square speckles in black and reddish-brown colour on its neck, like a necklace. It also has a long tail and its call is quite different from that of other kinds of doves.
These birds can be found in dry, rocky and bushy terrains. But they are also well adapted to living in cultivated lands, villages, parks and urban areas. These birds are so used to humans, but their nature does not attract much attention. They eat seeds in pairs, usually from the ground. Generally, these birds like to live in a particular locality. But sometimes, they are also found moving from place to place. Some of these birds that had tags attached to them for identification were discovered to have moved from Gujarat to Pakistan. They covered more than 200 km and were landing on ships in the Arabian Sea, when they were exhausted.
Laughing doves are very common in India, where they are also called little brown doves. Sometimes, these birds are also called palm doves or Senegal doves.