Common Ground-Dove / Musduif, Peni-ati stonka

Common Ground-Dove (Columbina passerina)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
not afraid © Serano Ramcharan	© Jan Hein Ribot	© Jan Hein Ribot
© John S. Dunning	© Dominiek Plouvier	French Guiana © Pascal Dubois

The common ground-dove is a small dove, brown above with some rose below and a scaly breast. This kind of ground-dove is less common in town, but you can see it often on places with more sand (or on the shell-ridges). On such surfaces they are well camouflaged.
All ground-doves spend the day mainly on the ground searching for food. They nod while walking, all the time looking for seeds, berries and insects. If the male wants to make an impression on a female, he will walk in front of her or just behind her, showing off his raised feathers, while making soft noises. The nests are found low in bushes.
The first picture was made by the late J.S. Dunning, in Suriname. The one below by Pascal Dunning in French Guyane in 2002.
Dominiek Plouvier made the video of a common ground-dove.

Video (click the link or the 'play'-button to see)
Video recording of a Common Ground-Dove © ;

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Columbina passerina
Order:	Columbiformes
Family:	Columbidae, 14 in Suriname
Dutch:	Musduif, Peni-ati stonka
English:	Common Ground-Dove
Sranan ('Surinamese'):	Peni-ati stonka
Guyana:
Papiamento:	Totolica
Spanish (Venezuela):	Tortolita grisácea
Portugese (Brazil):	Rolinha-cinzenta
Arowak:	Toekoeloewe
Carib:	Toekoeloewe
French:	Colombe à queue noire

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 560 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 102 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 560 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 102 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).