Nesoenas picturatus
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The Malagasy turtle dove or Madagascar turtle dove (Nesoenas picturatus) is a bird species in the pigeon and dove family, Columbidae. The bird has several subspecies. The Rodrigues pigeon, an extinct but fairly enigmatic taxon from Rodrigues on the Mascarenes, was for some time suspected to be another subspecies of N. picturata, but today is generally considered a distinct species (N. rodericanus).
The pink pigeon (N. mayeri) is its closest living relative, and together they form a lineage apart from both the typical pigeons (Columba) and the typical turtle doves (Streptopelia), slightly closer to the latter, if anything. Consequently, either these two are both placed in Streptopelia, or – as is probably the most accurate solution at present – separated as Nesoenas. The present species was in former times sometimes placed in a monotypic genus Homopelia. While this is not outright wrong, if the Rodrigues population is also placed in Homopelia and Nesoenas is considered distinct too, it would probably be considered oversplitting by modern authors.
It is found in Madagascar, Mauritius, Comoros, Réunion, Mayotte, Seychelles and the Chagos Archipelago... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Berenty Reserve | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 2 | Ankarafantsika National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 3 | Ranomafana National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 4 | Mantadia National Park | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zürich Zoo | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | |
| 2 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Zoo Santo Inácio | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 5 | Bird Paradise | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 6 | Rainforest Wild Asia | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 7 | Aquarium Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Malagasy Turtle Dove sighting in Antananarivo on a given day, based on 54 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 41st most-seen of the 69 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Malagasy Turtle Dove in Antananarivo on a given day, against under 5% in March, June, August–September and November–December, the lowest months. That is one of Antananarivo's wettest months, with about 380 mm of rain against 45 mm in September.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Malagasy Turtle 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.
Only Antananarivo, in our data
Antananarivo is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Malagasy Turtle Dove sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Malagasy Turtle Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Antananarivo (54 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.
