Black-billed Wood Dove
Encyclopedia
The Black-billed Wood Dove (Turtur abyssinicus) is a pigeon
which is a widespread resident breeding bird in a belt across Africa
just south of the Sahara Desert.
This species is abundant in near desert, scrub and savanna
h. It builds a stick nest in a tree, often an acacia
, and lays two cream-coloured eggs
. Its flight is quick, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general, and it tends to stay quite low.
Black-billed Wood Dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 20 cm in length. Its back, hindneck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have dark metallic patches. There are two blackish bands on the back. The forehead, crown and nape are bluish grey, fading to whitish on the face. The underparts are pinkish, becoming whiter on the belly.
The bill of this dove is, of course, black. When flying, Black-billed Wood Dove shows chestnut in the underwing. The call is a persistent fluted coo-coo-cu-coo. Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, scaly below, and lack the wing spots.
Black-billed Wood Doves eat grass and other small seeds. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground.
They are not very gregarious, but form large flocks at waterholes.
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
which is a widespread resident breeding bird in a belt across Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
just south of the Sahara Desert.
This species is abundant in near desert, scrub and savanna
Savanna
A savanna, or savannah, is a grassland ecosystem characterized by the trees being sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of C4 grasses.Some...
h. It builds a stick nest in a tree, often an acacia
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
, and lays two cream-coloured eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
. Its flight is quick, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general, and it tends to stay quite low.
Black-billed Wood Dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 20 cm in length. Its back, hindneck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have dark metallic patches. There are two blackish bands on the back. The forehead, crown and nape are bluish grey, fading to whitish on the face. The underparts are pinkish, becoming whiter on the belly.
The bill of this dove is, of course, black. When flying, Black-billed Wood Dove shows chestnut in the underwing. The call is a persistent fluted coo-coo-cu-coo. Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, scaly below, and lack the wing spots.
Black-billed Wood Doves eat grass and other small seeds. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground.
They are not very gregarious, but form large flocks at waterholes.