The black-billed wood dove (''Turtur abyssinicus'') is a

pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

which is a widespread resident breeding bird in a belt across

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

just south of the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. This species is abundant in near desert, scrub and

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

h. It builds a stick nest in a tree, often an

acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...

, and lays two cream-colored

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

. Its flight is quick, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general, and it tends to stay quite low. Black-billed wood dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 20 cm in length. Its back, hindneck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have dark metallic patches. There are two blackish bands on the back. The forehead, crown and nape are bluish grey, fading to whitish on the face. The underparts are pinkish, becoming whiter on the belly. The bill of this dove is, of course, black. When flying, black-billed wood dove shows chestnut in the underwing. The call is a persistent fluted '' coo-coo-cu-coo''. Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, scaly below, and lack the wing spots. Black-billed wood doves eat grass and other small seeds. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground. They are not very gregarious, but form large flocks at waterholes.

References

* ''Birds of The Gambia'' by Barlow, Wacher and Disley, {{Taxonbar, from=Q240318

black-billed wood dove The black-billed wood dove (''Turtur abyssinicus'') is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in a belt across Africa just south of the Sahara Desert. This species is abundant in near desert, scrub and savannah. It builds a stick ...

Birds of the Sahel