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Dusky Turtle Dove | Streptopelia lugens
Rouwtortel | Tórtola Oscura
The Dusky Turtle Dove is a dark, heavily built dove of the East African highlands that reaches the region only on the plateaux of northern Malawi and north-eastern Zambia. It resembles a dark eastern counterpart of the European Turtle Dove.
Voice
A deep, hoarse, slow coo, coorr-coorr-coorr, repeated three to five times, lower and rougher than that of Red-Eyed Dove and without its characteristic six-note cadence.
Recording: David Darrell-Lambert — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
About 31 cm, bulky and dark. Head, neck and underparts are dark slate grey to grey-brown, the crown slightly paler grey. There is a black patch on each side of the neck, without a continuous collar across the hindneck. Mantle and scapulars are dark with broad rufous to orange-brown fringes that create a scaled pattern, as in European Turtle Dove. The tail is dark with grey tips to the outer feathers. The eye is orange, with a narrow bare reddish eye ring. The sexes are alike; juveniles are browner and largely lack the black neck patch.
Confusion species
Red-Eyed Dove (Streptopelia semitorquata) has a continuous black collar, a pink head with a pale forehead and plain dark upperparts without rufous scaling. Ring-Necked Dove (Streptopelia capicola) is much paler and smaller, with a collar and white tail corners. The combination of a black neck patch and rufous-scaled scapulars is unique in the region.
Habitat
Montane forest edges, copses and scrub in mountain valleys, transitions to montane grassland, and highland farmland and gardens, mostly above 1500 m. It feeds on the ground on seeds and grain, often in small groups.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of southern Africa.
Range and movements
Within the region only in the highlands of northern Malawi (Nyika Plateau, Misuku Hills, Viphya) and adjacent north-eastern Zambia (Nyika, Mafinga Hills). Beyond the region it occurs in the highlands of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, eastern DR Congo, South Sudan and Ethiopia, and in south-western Arabia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The Nyika Plateau, around Chelinda and along forest edges in the valleys. In the morning birds often perch on bare branches at the forest edge or feed along tracks. Look for the rufous scaling and the black neck patch. All year, with some movement to lower altitudes outside the breeding season.
Conservation status
Not threatened and common in the East African highlands. Within the region its occurrence is small and isolated, so conservation of forest edges and scrub on the Nyika Plateau is important.
Scientific name
Streptopelia lugens | (Rüppell, 1837)
Rüppell described the species in 1837 as Columba lugens; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Streptopelia was introduced in 1855 by Bonaparte. Streptopelia is Greek, from streptos 'collar, twisted chain' and peleia 'dove', after the dark neck collar of these doves. lugens is Latin for 'mourning' — for the dark, sombre plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Taranta Mountains and Simien, Ethiopia.