Zenaida aurita
Silhouette: Danielle Alba · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The Zenaida dove (Zenaida aurita) is the type species of the genus Zenaida, member of the bird family Columbidae, which includes doves and pigeons. Its range is found throughout the Caribbean islands, and along the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is the national bird of Anguilla.
The Zenaida dove was first described in 1809 by Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck, who originally classified it as Columba aurita in the ornithological documentation of Les Pigeons, and later moved as the Zenaida amabilis to its current genus of Zenaida in 1838, where it is classified as being closely related to species such as the mourning dove and the eared dove.
The genus Zenaida comes from Zénaïde Bonaparte, wife of French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who first introduced the genus itself in 1838. The species epithet, aurita, means "eared" or "having ears" in Latin, referencing the black auricular patches located close to their eyes, where their ears would be located. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | |
| 2 | Ciénaga de Zapata | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 3 | Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 4 | Jaragua National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 5 | Los Haitises National Park | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 2 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Zenaida Dove sighting in Jaragua National Park on a given day, based on 32 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 41st most-seen of the 92 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.
March–April and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Zenaida Dove in Jaragua National Park on a given day, against about 10% in May, October and December–February, the lowest months. June to September have too few records to rate.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Zenaida 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.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Zenaida Dove sightings, Jaragua National Park ranks 4th at about 20%. The best odds are in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (Jamaica, about 50%), Ciénaga de Zapata (Cuba, about 20%) and Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (Mexico, about 20%). All parks ranked.
Same genus: Zenaida
The closest relatives of the Zenaida Dove that you can see in Jaragua National Park (genus Zenaida, Zenaida Doves) are Mourning Dove (about 20%) and White-winged Dove (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Zenaida Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Jaragua National Park (32 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.
