What to Know About the Tambourine Dove in Uganda?

The Tambourine Dove in Uganda is one of the African birds in Uganda seen during a Uganda birding safari. The tambourine dove is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in woodlands and other thick vegetation of mostly Murchison falls national park.

Its range extends to eastern Africa, but it is absent from the drier areas of south-western Africa.

How Does the Tambourine Dove in Uganda look like?

The tambourine dove is a small plump pigeon, typically 22 cm in length. The male has a white face with a black spot behind the eye, white underparts and a grey crown.

Its back, hind neck, wings and tail are pale grey brown, and the folded wings have large dark purple patches. The under tail is brown. The eye ring and feet are purple-red, and the bill is purple.

The female is duller, and is white only on the belly, the face and breast being a pale grey-brown. The crown is grey-brown, without the blue-grey of the male.

The juvenile resembles the female but has chestnut fringes to the feathers of the back, breast and flanks. Even in these plumages, this species is paler below than other small African doves.

The tambourine dove’s flight is fast and agile, and it tends to stay quite low when flushed. In flight it shows chestnut primary flight feathers and under wings.

How Does the Tambourine Dove in Uganda Sing and Make Calls?

The call of this bird is a persistently repeated du-du-du-du-du. Delivered in a series of up to 40 cooing notes over period of 15–16 seconds in advertisement and territory.

How Does the Tambourine Dove in Uganda Feed?

Tambourine dove is usually solitary but is sometimes seen in family groups or with lemon doves. It is quite terrestrial, and usually forages on the ground for seeds and small fruits.

It has a preference for seeds of the castor oil plant. It will on occasion eat small insects and molluscs.

How Does the Tambourine Dove in Uganda nest?

The courtship displays are unknown, but they are probably similar to those of the Common Cuckoo.

The male bobs the head or bows the body, with wings open and drooped while the tail is raised and fanned.

This posture displays the plumage pattern. In addition, the male sometimes offers a caterpillar to the female.

The African Cuckoo is an intra-African migrant. It breeds during the rainy season. It arrives with the rain and disappears after breeding. Information about dispersion or migration is currently lacking.

How Does the African Cuckoo in Uganda nest?

The tambourine dove builds a frail stick nest low in a thicket or vine tangle.

How Does the Tambourine Dove in Uganda Reproduce?

The female lays two cream-colored eggs. Both sexes incubate, although this task is performed mainly by the female, and the eggs hatch in 13 days with another 13–14 days to fledging. The chicks are fed regurgitated food.