IN this week’s post, we feature a dainty but shy bird, the Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove. As with most doves, they tend to be heard but not often seen, and because they are so shy, you will need to look carefully to spot them.
Also read: Chirping with Kloof Conservancy – the Brown Snake Eagle
Description
The Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove is smallish at 20cm with a weight of 64g. It is mainly a pinkish-fawn colour with a touch of blue-grey on the crown and cheeks. The upper parts are a tawny-brown colour, but its distinguishing feature is the emerald-coloured spots on its wings. If caught in the sunlight, these spots shimmer with an iridescent emerald green and look quite striking. The spots can appear black in poor light. Males and females look identical.
Distribution
The Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove can be found along the coastal strip from Gqeberha through to eSwatini and across most of the northern parts of South Africa as far south as Pretoria.
Habitat
The preferred habitats of the Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove are closed woodlands and bush thickets. They are often also found in gardens and orchards.
Feeding
The Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove is omnivorous and eats a wide range of food, including seeds, fallen fruit and termites. It always feeds on the ground.
Breeding
This species is monogamous (pairs for life) and often uses the same nest, which is a somewhat untidy pile of sticks, twigs, grass and roots. The nests are most often on the lower branches of a tree or a small bush. The female does most of the incubation, but both parents feed the chicks.
Predators and threats
This species is preyed on by many raptors, but its numbers are healthy, and it is not a threatened species. Snakes and shrikes will raid their nests for eggs or chicks.
Local information
You are most likely to find this dove by looking in your garden, so look for it early in the morning when it is quiet and calm.
Interesting facts
The mournful call consists of two soft, long coos, followed by a series of slow, descending coos lasting about 10 seconds and concluding with four seconds of rapid coos.
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