From Opus

Photo by rudydbn
Mkhuze Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, September 2004

Turtur tympanistria

[edit] Identification

Length 22 cm. White face, black spot behind the eye, white underparts, grey crown. pale grey brown back, hind neck, wings and tail, the folded wings have large dark purple patches, brown under tail, purple red eye ring and feet, purple bill.

The female - duller, white belly, pale grey brown face, breast and crown. The juvenile resembles the female but has chestnut fringes to the feathers of the back, breast and flanks.

[edit] Distribution

Senegal east to Ethiopia, Kenya, eastern Africa to south-eastern South Africa, and the Comoros Islands.

[edit] Taxonomy

Monotypic.

[edit] Habitat

Woodlands and thick vegetation, plantations of castor oil, cocoa and rubber.

[edit] Behaviour

It builds a stick nest low in a thicket. 2 cream-coloured eggs are laid and incubated by both sexes, although mainly by the female, for 13 days; 13-14 days later the young fledge. The chicks are fed regurgitated food.

Terrestrial.

The diet includes seeds, especially of the castor oil plant, small fruits, occasionally small insects and molluscs.

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