Black-billed Wood Doves
Dove Information ... Dove Species ... Photo Gallery ... Doves & Pigeons: DVDs and Books for Dove & Pigeon Lovers - Now available in: 
, 
, 
, 
The Black-billed Wood Dove aka Uganda 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 savannah.
They are not very gregarious, but form large flocks at waterholes.
Nesting / Breeding
It builds a stick nest in a tree, often an acacia, and lays two cream-colored eggs.
Description
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 20cm 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.
Diet / Feeding
Black-billed Wood Doves eat grass and other small seeds. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground.
Copyright: Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia.org
Photo, Video and/or Article contributions are welcome! Please click here for info
The Avianweb strives to maintain accurate and up-to-date information; however, mistakes do happen. If you would like to correct or update any of the information, please send us an e-mail. THANK YOU!
