Zenaida aurita
Silhouette: Danielle Alba · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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 Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve on a given day, based on 276 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 57th most-seen of the 216 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 and September
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Zenaida Dove in Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve on a given day, against about 10% in February–March and October, the lowest months.
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.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Zenaida Dove sightings, Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park (Jamaica, about 50%) and Ciénaga de Zapata (Cuba, about 20%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Zenaida Dove is recorded against all the birds logged in Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve (276 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.
