Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Zebra Dove

Geopelia Striata

Description:

The Zebra Dove Geopelia striata, also known as Barred Ground Dove, is a bird of the dove family Columbidae, native to South-east Asia. It is closely related to the Peaceful Dove of Australia and New Guinea and the Barred Dove of eastern Indonesia. These two were classified as subspecies of the Zebra Dove until recently and the names Peaceful Dove and Barred Dove were often applied to the whole species.The birds are small and slender with a long, narrow tail. The upperparts are brownish-grey with black-and-white barring. The underparts are pinkish with black bars on the sides of the neck, breast and belly. The face is blue-grey with bare blue skin around the eyes. There are white tips to the tail feathers. Juveniles are duller and paler than the adults. Zebra Doves are 20-23 centimetres in length with a wingspan of 24–26 cm. Their call is a series of soft, staccato cooing notes. In Thailand and Indonesia, the birds are popular as pets because of their calls and cooing competitions are held to find the bird with the best voice. In Indonesia this bird is called perkutut. In the Philippines they are known as batobatong katigbe ("Pebbled Katigbe") and kurokutok, onomatopoeic to their calls. They are also known as tukmo in Filipino, a name also given to the Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) and other wild doves.

Habitat:

The native range of the species extends from Southern Thailand, Tenasserim, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore to the Indonesian islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Lombok. It may also be native in the Philippines. The Zebra Dove is popular in captivity and many populations have appeared outside its native range due to birds escaping or being deliberately released. It can now be found in central Thailand, Laos, Borneo, Sulawesi, Hawaii (introduced in 1922), Tahiti (1950), New Caledonia, the Seychelles, the Chagos Archipelago (1960), Mauritius (before 1768), Réunion and Saint Helena. It inhabits scrub, farmland and open country in lowland areas and is commonly seen in parks and gardens. Trapping for the cagebird industry has led to them becoming rare in parts of Indonesia but in most parts of its range it is common. Zebra Doves are among the most abundant birds in some places such as Hawaii and the Seychelles.

Notes:

This bird is seen foraging inside our residential property.

2 Species ID Suggestions

XXD17
XXD17 11 years ago
Zebra dove
None
Liam
Liam 11 years ago
Zebra Dove
Geopelia striata Zebra Dove


Sign in to suggest organism ID

3 Comments

Jolly Ibañez
Jolly Ibañez 11 years ago

Thanks Liam for the ID

Jolly Ibañez
Jolly Ibañez 11 years ago

Thanks guys for the ID.

Sachin Zaveri
Sachin Zaveri 11 years ago

Lovely spotting,

Jolly Ibañez
Spotted by
Jolly Ibañez

Zamboanga City, Philippines

Spotted on Apr 18, 2011
Submitted on Apr 18, 2012

Spotted for Mission

Related Spottings

Zebra Dove Zebra dove Zebra Dove Zebra Dove

Nearby Spottings

Spotting Lanzones Pink Rain Lily Christ Plant
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team