Turtur abyssinicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The black-billed wood dove or black-billed dove (Turtur abyssinicus) is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in a belt across Africa just south of the Sahara Desert. This species is abundant in near desert, scrub and savannah. It builds a stick nest in a tree, often an acacia, and lays two cream-colored eggs. Its flight is quick, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general, and it tends to stay quite low.
Black-billed wood dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 20 cm in length. Its back, hindneck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have dark metallic patches. There are two blackish bands on the back. The forehead, crown and nape are bluish grey, fading to whitish on the face. The underparts are pinkish, becoming whiter on the belly.
The bill of this dove is black. When flying, black-billed wood dove shows chestnut in the underwing. The call is a persistent fluted coo-coo-cu-coo. Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, scaly below, and lack the wing spots.
Black-billed wood doves eat grass and other small seeds. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground. They are not very gregarious, but form large flocks at waterholes. Though they are classified as Least Concern in the IUCN, their population has decreased significantly since 2004. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal | |
| 2 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 3 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 4 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Black-billed Wood-Dove sighting in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, based on 506 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 30th most-seen of the 424 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and June–July
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Black-billed Wood-Dove in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, against about 20% in May, the lowest month.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-billed Wood-Dove sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Black-billed Wood-Dove sightings, Murchison Falls National Park ranks 2nd at about 40%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 80%).
Same genus: Turtur
The closest relatives of the Black-billed Wood-Dove that you can see in Murchison Falls National Park (genus Turtur, Wood-Doves) are Blue-spotted Wood-Dove (about 20%) and Tambourine Dove (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-billed Wood-Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Murchison Falls National Park (506 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.
