Fun Wood Dove Facts For Kids

Wood doves are small doves of five different kinds. They are the emerald spotted wood dove, black-billed wood dove, blue-spotted wood dove, tambourine wood dove, and blue-headed wood dove. These doves are seen residing in the range, including the evergreen forests, woodland areas, and semi-desert patches. Few are found to be the resident of the gardens and the parks in the cities. Some have spots on them, whereas some have bands of them as an identifying feature. The lower back of few birds, as well as the tail, have two bands across them. The crown can be blue or grayish-blue. Their plumage is pinkish, with the abdomen being partly pinkish and white. The back portion of the neck lighter shade of blue, with the legs being purple or black. Similar black bands can be seen across the body of these birds.

If you like reading this, you might want to read about vesper sparrow facts and the hummingbird facts.

What type of animal is a wood dove?

The wood dove is the common name of the dove genus Turtur.

What class of animal does a wood dove belong to?

The wood dove belongs to the Aves class of animals.

How many wood doves are there in the world?

The colored and the spotted wood dove birds are listed under the Least Concern series by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Although they are listed in the Least Concern category, the exact number of the individuals is not known as of now.

Where does a wood dove live?

The colored and spotted wood doves are found in the range consisting of areas covering the open woodland forests and the desert habitats of the northern part of the equator. The range starts from the southeastern parts of Sudan and Ethiopia, extending through east Africa ending in north Bostwana. Few bird species are found along with the range of Kenya and in the southern part of Sahel. Along with the range, the birds cover the length from north Namibia to Natal as well.

What is a wood dove's habitat?

The dove birds, related to pigeons, are found to be fond of the habitats consisting of deserts as well as the forests of the tropical climatic zone. The tambourine and the spotted wood dove bird species are usually spotted within the woodland forests in the northern equatorial zones. The habitats here include deciduous trees within tropical zones. Very often, few birds, including the black-billed wood dove or the blue-spotted wood dove (South Africa), are seen along with the range of the Sahara Desert, mostly near the southernmost belt of the desert. This bird is the resident of the habitats, including the range of the woodland forests consisting of deciduous trees like the Mopane trees. They are the bird species of the song singing bird, and the song can be heard through these mopane trees.

Who do wood doves live with?

These doves are mostly spotted alone or are found in pairs during the breeding season. However, few flocks with a large number of birds are found near the waterholes or near the areas which can serve the birds an adequate amount of food.

How long does a wood dove live?

These birds are known to have an average lifespan of around eight to nine years while living in the wild.

How do they reproduce?

These birds are known to be monogamous by nature which means the bird species pair up once and breed with the same partner over the years. Their bonds are made for a lifetime. The breeding is regular, and they are known to build large nests on the ground within the bushes or along the branches of the deciduous trees. These nests are mostly fragile and are built of sticks. The pairs are seen to be together during the breeding season. The females lay around one or two eggs and the gestation period lasts up to 13-17 days, after which the eggs hatch. Females are seen feeding while the males guard the nests.

What is their conservation status?

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), these doves are listed as of Least Concern. Although the exact number of the species is known not, there has been a stable growth of their population trend.

What do wood doves look like?

The emerald spotted wood dove, and the blue-spotted wood dove is a small bird of the northern regions of Africa with identifying spots on them. Although they are similar, these small doves are someway different from each other in terms of appearances depending on the geographical range that they belong to. For the spotted wood dove, the body, wings, and tail are covered with different colored feathers with bright colored spots all across the body. The back and the plumage have an identifying color with specific spots. Tambourine has a blue plumage with a black-colored back. The wood dove's tail has a shade of brown along with few spots colored with a pinch of blue and green. The wings, when folded, show the patches or the spots which are either black, blue, or green in color. The patches are usually dark, like metallic colors.

How cute are they?

The colored and the spotted wood dove (Turtur genus) species are small pigeons that are somewhat cute by their appearances. The black bills, blue crowns, and the range of coloration present all across their body make them look vibrant and are considered to be a delight to the eyes of the visitor. While they are not as pretty as birds-of-paradise, some people find them really adorable.

How do they communicate?

The small species are known to sing-song while incubating. The song of the wood dove is a soft 'coo-coo' or a 'du-du-du-du' sound. Although the song is soft, they are pretty long as well. The wood dove call or sing ends with a series of coos with a decreasing volume.

How big is a wood dove?

These are small species with an average height of around 7.5-9.5 in (19-25 cm). These song emitting species are almost half the size of a normal dove which has an average height of around 9-14 in (22-36 cm).

How fast can a wood dove fly?

A resident of the wild, these species have a quick flight. They have a swift and free fall to the ground to search for food in their habitats.

How much does a wood dove weigh?

The wood dove (Turtur genus) species have a weight of 2.3 oz (65 g) on average.

What are the male and female names of the species?

There is no sex-specific name assigned to the male and female members of this species.

What would you call a baby wood dove?

The baby doves are usually called chicks.

What do they eat?

These song singing species are omnivores in nature and mostly feed in seeds, grains, and termites. They feed on invertebrates found on the ground, and their bill helps them to pierce their prey.

Are they poisonous?

There is no information about this species being poisonous in nature.

Would they make a good pet?

Since the species is a resident of the wild, they are not known to make good pets to humans.

Did you know...

This species from the southern range has a lighter black bill than those from the north. The southern birds may have a light reddish-black bill with a black tip at the end of the bill. At the same time, the northern bird has a bill that is completely black in color.

These pigeons are non-migratory in nature.

What's the difference between a wood pigeon and a dove?

The basic difference between the two would be the nomenclature. Out of the two, the wood pigeon is referred to as the larger member of the family, while the dove is referred to as the smaller member.

How do you identify a wood pigeon?

These are free species with a pair of noticeable wings and a bill. The black bill and the colored patches on the two wings are more than enough to identify them.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other birds from our owl facts and falcon facts pages.

You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring in one of our free printable turtle doves coloring pages.