- Columba guinea
Identification
32–35 cm (12½-13¾ in)
- Rufous back
- White-spotted wings
- Bluish-grey upper and underparts
- Grey head
- Red eye patches
- Brown neck, streaked white
- Red
Sexes similar; immatures browner
Distribution
Africa south of the Sahara
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, DRC and Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho and eSwatini
Taxonomy
Subspecies[1]
Columba guinea has two subspecies:
- C. g. guinea
- C. g. phaeonota
- South-western Angola to Zimbabwe and South Africa
Habitat
Mountain ranges, rocky terrain, coatal cliffs and cities, woods, scrub and gardens.
Behaviour
Diet
It feeds mainly on seeds along with newly germinated shoots, grain and groundnuts.
Breeding
Their traditional breeding/roosting sites were cliff ledges but they have recently taken to breeding in buildings. This has helped the species increase in number and range. It builds a large stick nest in a tree or on a building, laying 2 white eggs.
Vocalisation
Call: loud doo-doo-doo.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2016. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2016, with updates to August 2016. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Wikipedia
- BF Member observations
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Speckled Pigeon. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 28 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Speckled_Pigeon
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
