Columbina passerina
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The common ground dove (Columbina passerina) is a small bird that inhabits the southern United States, parts of Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. It is considered to be the smallest dove that inhabits the United States. As its name suggests, the bird spends the majority of its time on the ground, but can still fly.
The common ground dove was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758, in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba and coined the binomial name Columba passerina. The specific name passerina is from the Latin passerinus meaning "sparrow-like". The species is now placed with other New World ground-doves in the genus Columbina that was introduced in 1825, by the German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix. There are nine species in this genus including the Inca dove (Columbina inca) and the scaled dove (Columbina squammata).
There are 17 recognised subspecies: Males are paler and females have more white on their... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba | |
| 2 | Santo Domingo | 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic | |
| 3 | São Luís | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Manaus | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 9 | Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Burgers' Ocean | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 3 | Royal Burgers' Zoo | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 4 | Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Ground-Dove sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 2,405 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 60th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and August–September
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Ground-Dove in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against about 10% in November and December, the lowest months. Those are among Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge's wettest months, with about 170 mm of rain a month against 50 mm in March.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Ground-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.
9th of 41
Of the 41 parks where we can rate Common Ground-Dove sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 9th at about 20%. The best odds are in Cabo Pulmo National Park (Mexico, about 40%), Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (Jamaica, about 40%) and Bahía de Loreto National Park (Mexico, about 30%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Ground-Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (2,405 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.
