Blue-spotted Wood Dove
Turtur afer

AKA: Red-billed Wood Dove; Red-billed Blue-spotted Wood Dove; Sapphire-spotted Dove

©John Pire

© Dr Ivano Pelicella

©Royal Museum for Central Africa

Distribution: Inhabits the wooded forests, scrub near the streams & rivers, native cultivation & clearings of the evergreen forests of Africa, south of the Sahara, West Africa east to Ethiopia, south through Zaire, northwest, western & coastal Kenya, Tanzania to Mozambique & north-eastern South Africa; in the western part of the range it is found through Gabon to western Angola. It is replaced by the Emerald-spotted & Black-billed Wood Doves in the drier areas and in the denser forests it is replaced by the Tambourine Dove.

Description: (Linnaeus 1766) Length 22 cm. Very similar in size, shape & color of the Emerald-spotted & Black-billed Wood Doves with the notable exceptions: the bill color is purplish red with yellow tip. The legs & feet tend to be a richer red color then the other two mentioned species. 

Voice: similar to the Black-billed Wood Dove & Emerald-spotted Wood Dove.

Nesting: 2 dark cream buff to brownish cream colored eggs. Incubation is 13-15 days; young fledge in 15 to 17 days after hatching. 

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