Columba rupestris
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The hill pigeon (Columba rupestris) is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. Other names include eastern rock dove and Turkestan hill dove. The hill pigeon is a stout-bodied pigeon, similar in size and general appearance to the rock dove (Columba livia) but mainly differentiated by its tail pattern which consists of a broad, white tail-band across the black tail. Other differences include a paler mantle and upper wings and a white patch on the back. In flight, the tail pattern is similar to the snow pigeon (Columba leuconota), but lacks the contrast between the head and neck in that species.
It is found in China, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Kazakhstan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan. This pigeon is comparatively restricted in range of Pakistan to the furthest northern inner valleys of the Karakoram... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hemis National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 3 | Langtang National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xining | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Ulaanbaatar | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 3 | Beijing | 🇨🇳 China |
No species of the same family or order lives in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Hill Pigeon sighting in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park on a given day, based on 47 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 50th most-seen of the 122 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.
May
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Hill Pigeon in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September, the lowest month. January–April and October–November have too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Hill Pigeon sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Hill Pigeon sightings, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Hemis National Park (India, about 70%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Hill Pigeon is recorded against all the birds logged in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (47 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
