Bird of the Week – Speckled pigeon
The Zulu name is ivukuthu and in Afrikaans, die kransduif.
THE speckled pigeon is also called a rock pigeon.
They are most common to abundant residents found over almost the whole of Southern Africa but are absent from much of the Kalahari sandveld.
These pigeons like mountains, cliffs, gorges, koppies, boulder hills and buildings. They are solitary or in groups of 10 to 20 birds. At times several hundreds can be found at food concentrations.
They usually roost in cliff ledges or buildings which are characteristically splashed with white droppings. When the males display in flight, they clap their wings in bursts below the body, interspersed with glides on flat wings.
The call is about 10 to 20 deep mellow ‘coos – doo, doo, doo’, increasing in volume. In courtship, it is an emphatic ‘VUkutu – kooo’, accented on the first syllable, drawn out on the last and repeated several times.
LISTEN:
Breeding takes place in all months, the nest being a flimsy platform of sticks, twigs, weeds and grass. Two white eggs are laid and incubation is 14 to 16 days. Nestlings remain for 25 to 26 days.
The Zulu name is ivukuthu and in Afrikaans, die kransduif.
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