Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – Lemon Dove
Find out more about this feathered Highway resident below.
DOVES are reasonably common in the Highway area, so much so that we tend to ignore them. However, the Lemon Dove, also known as the Cinnamon Dove, is one that we don’t see very often as it is a shy bird and spends most of its time in shady forests.
Also read: Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – Little Bee-eater
Description
The Lemon Dove is a medium-sized dove with medium-grey plumage, glossed-green on the sides of its neck, and cinnamon-brown below. It has a distinctive pale face which makes it easily identifiable. When in flight, it shows the paler grey corners of the tail. It measures 24–30 cm in length and weighs 81.7–150g. Male and females are identical in appearance.
Distribution
The Lemon Dove is fairly common in a narrow strip along the eastern parts of South Africa from the Western Cape, through KwaZulu-Natal, and then stretches into Mpumalanga province.
Habitat
The Lemon Dove is a shade loving species and lives almost exclusively in indigenous forests or well shaded gardens.
Feeding
The Lemon Dove can most often be spotted on the forest floor where it feeds mainly on fallen seeds and fruit, as well as the occasional small invertebrates.
Breeding
The Lemon Dove is a monogamous species and pairs for life. Both sexes build the nest, which is usually a sparse, flat platform of twigs, usually placed 2.5m above ground in a tree. It lays one to three eggs, which are incubated solely by the female, for 14–18 days. The chicks stay in the nest for 20 days, after which they remain with their parents for two months, before becoming independent.
Predators and threats
The Lemon Dove is not considered to be under any threat other than through the destruction of forests for housing or industrial developments.
Local information
Most residents of the Highway area will have heard this species as its call is a deep hooting, with a repeated woo-oop often rising towards the end of each call, and it can be heard from quite a distance. It can be found in all the riverine and scarp forests of the Highway area.
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