The Mourning Collared Dove (Streptopelia decipiens) is a pigeon

Dove

Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...

 which is a widespread resident breeding bird in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 south of the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

. Despite its name, it is not a close relative of the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n Mourning Dove

Mourning Dove

The Mourning Dove is a member of the dove family . The bird is also called the Turtle Dove or the American Mourning Dove or Rain Dove, and formerly was known as the Carolina Pigeon or Carolina Turtledove. It is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds...

, Zenaida macroura. This species is common or abundant near water. They often mingle peacefully with other doves.

Description

The Mourning Collared Dove is a largish, stocky pigeon, up to 31 cm in length. Its back, wings and tail are pale brown. The head is grey and the underparts are pink, shading to pale grey on the belly. There is a black hind neck patch edged with white. The legs and a patch of bare skin around the eye are red.

When flying, it shows blackish flight feathers and extensive white in the tail, the latter being a distinction from the similar but larger Red-eyed Dove

Red-eyed Dove

The Red-eyed Dove is a pigeon which is a widespread resident breeding bird in Africa south of the Sahara. It is a common, if not abundant, species in most habitats other than desert....

. The call is a fast krrrrrrrr, oo-OO, oo.

Sexes are similar, but immatures are duller than adults, and have scalloping on the body feather

Feather

Feathers are one of the epidermal growths that form the distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on birds and some non-avian theropod dinosaurs. They are considered the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates, and indeed a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They...

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Behaviour

The Mourning Collared Dove's flight is quick, with the regular beats and an occasional sharp flick of the wings which are characteristic of pigeons in general.

Diet and feeding

Mourning Collared Doves eat grass seeds, grains and other vegetation. They are quite terrestrial, and usually forage on the ground. Unlike several other species in this genus, they are quite gregarious and often feed in groups.

Reproduction

It builds a stick nest in a tree, often a mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

, and lays two white eggs

Egg (biology)

An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...

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