Tambourine Dove

ORDER: Columbiformes

FAMILY: Columbidae

GENUS: Turtur

SPECIES: tympanistria

DESCRIPTION:

About half the size of a common pigeon, plump and compact. Forehead, throat, breast and underparts white. Black band from gape to eye. Upperparts dark brown. Lower back crossed by two blackish bands. Iridescent wing spots. Underside of wings and flanks chestnut. Undertail coverts dark olive brown. The female has sides of chest and neck washed with gray.

GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE AND HABITAT:

Wide range from Sierra Leone and southern Ethiopia to the Zambesi river also in Zanzibar and Pemba.

DIET:

Feeds chiefly on the ground on seeds, especially those of the castor oil plant and berries. Take termites and other small invertebrates.

LIFE CYCLE/SOCIAL STRUCTURE:

Usually found in pairs in thick forest. Each pair is confined to a small area. Makes usual pigeon nest in shrub or tree. Lays two white to cream-colored eggs. Both sexes incubate.

SPECIAL ADAPTATIONS:

Can fly swiftly through thick cover, dodging around trunks and branches in its way.

INTERPRETIVE INFORMATION::

Usually shy and not often seen, but it has adapted itself to Nairobi gardens and is there quite tame.

OUR ANIMALS:

1 Female.

STATUS IN THE WILD:

Not endangered, but listed as threatened by a specific country (CITES Appendix III).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Goodwin, Derek, 1967 Pigeons and Doves of the World, London, British Museum (Natural History).
2. Mackworth-Praed, C.W. and C.H.B. Grant. 1957. Birds of Eastern and North Eastern Africa, Series 1 Vol. 1. London, Longmans Green.