Turtur abyssinicus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-billed Wood-Dove sighting in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 377th most-seen of the 434 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-billed Wood-Dove in Queen Elizabeth National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to February, the lowest months.
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.
4th of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Black-billed Wood-Dove sightings, Queen Elizabeth National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 80%), Murchison Falls National Park (Uganda, about 40%) and Kidepo Valley National Park (Uganda, about 20%).
Same genus: Turtur
The closest relatives of the Black-billed Wood-Dove that you can see in Queen Elizabeth National Park (genus Turtur, Wood-Doves) are Blue-spotted Wood-Dove (about 40%) 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 Queen Elizabeth National Park (8 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.
