Blue-spotted Wood-Dove

Blue-spotted Wood-Dove

Turtur afer

Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Accra

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

63 Verified sightings at Accra
2,048 In all 20 parks From 2019 to 2026
March Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Blue-spotted Wood-Dove

The blue-spotted wood dove or blue-spotted dove (Turtur afer) is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is abundantly present throughout Africa south of the Sahel; it is partially present in East Africa and absent in southern Africa.

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the blue-spotted wood dove in his six volume Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Senegal. He used the French name La tourterelle de Sénégal and the Latin Turtur senegalensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the blue-spotted wood dove which he placed with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Columba afra and cited Brisson's work. The specific name afer is the Latin word for "Africa". The species is now placed in the genus Turtur that was introduced in 1783 by... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Song0:26

Uganda · 2025

© Bernard BOUSQUET · XC1052661 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Call0:15

Central African Republic · 2021

© Rod Cassidy · XC621218 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Song0:10

Ethiopia · 2014

© Andrew Spencer · XC277700 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Queen Elizabeth National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~40%
2 Kibale National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~30%
3 Odzala-Kokoua National Park 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo
~20%
4 Murchison Falls National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~20%
5 Taï National Park 🇨🇮 Ivory Coast
~20%
6 Lake Mburo National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~20%
7 Virunga National Park 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo
~10%
8 Akagera National Park 🇷🇼 Rwanda
~10%
9 Semuliki National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~10%
10 Liwonde National Park 🇲🇼 Malawi
~10%
11 Gorongosa National Park 🇲🇿 Mozambique
~10%
12 Bwindi Impenetrable National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~10%
13 Kidepo Valley National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
<5%
14 Lake Manyara National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
15 Ruaha National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
16 Arusha National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%
17 Nyungwe National Park 🇷🇼 Rwanda
<5%
18 Kafue National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
<5%
19 Masai Mara National Reserve 🇰🇪 Kenya
<5%
20 Tarangire National Park 🇹🇿 Tanzania
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Brazzaville 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo
~40%
2 Yaoundé 🇨🇲 Cameroon
~20%
3 Accra 🇬🇭 Ghana
~20%
4 Kigali 🇷🇼 Rwanda
~10%
5 Kampala 🇺🇬 Uganda
~10%
6 Freetown 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone
~10%
7 Lagos 🇳🇬 Nigeria
~10%
8 Abuja 🇳🇬 Nigeria
~10%
9 Serrekunda 🇬🇲 Gambia
~10%
10 Abidjan 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Blue-spotted Wood-Dove in Accra?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-spotted Wood-Dove sighting in Accra on a given day, based on 63 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 52nd most-seen of the 162 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see a Blue-spotted Wood-Dove in Accra?

March

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-spotted Wood-Dove in Accra on a given day, against under 5% in April, the lowest month.

What time of day is best to see a Blue-spotted Wood-Dove?

Between 7 and 10 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-spotted Wood-Dove sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Accra the best place to see a Blue-spotted Wood-Dove?

3rd of 11

Of the 11 cities where we can rate Blue-spotted Wood-Dove sightings, Accra ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo, about 40%) and Yaoundé (Cameroon, about 20%).

Which relatives of the Blue-spotted Wood-Dove live in Accra?

Same family: Columbidae

The closest relatives of the Blue-spotted Wood-Dove that you can see in Accra (family Columbidae, Pigeons and Doves) are Laughing Dove (about 90%), Red-eyed Dove (about 60%) and Rock Pigeon (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.

Where does the Blue-spotted Wood-Dove sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Blue-spotted Wood-Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Accra (63 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.

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