Two Friendly Ground Doves!
On the second day of Christmas, NFMV shared with me:
TWO FRIENDLY GROUND DOVES
And a fruit dove in a mango tree
Two Fabulous Friendly Ground Doves!
Yesterday we met our fantastic fruit doves. Today read on to find out more about our fabulous friendly ground dove.
Look very carefully at the photo of the ground dove below, then try to colour the picture as accurately as you can. It is not easy to get the colours right as they are very subtle and help the birds to be camouflaged on the forest floor. If they were bright, they would be in more danger from predators.
Why not design your own bird and colour it ANY way you like? We would love to see it!
We are very lucky to have such amazing biodiversity here in Fiji
Some fun facts about our Friendly ground doves:
- Friendly ground doves are found in Tonga, Samoa and Fiji
- They are much rarer in Tonga and Samoa so we must protect ours as Fiji is their haven
- They are called friendly ground dove because they come from the friendly Island of Tonga (considered by explorers to be a friendly place)
- It is found in all kinds of forest
- It eats seeds, fruit, buds, young leaves, insects and snails
- Like all of our South Pacific birds, the friendly ground dove evolved at a time when there were no predators and wildlife was safe.
- They live and breed close to the ground, spend a lot of time feeding on the ground and prefer to run away from danger rather than fly. This makes them extremely vulnerable to predators like cats, rats and mongooses.
- It is also called the shy ground dove, because it is skittish and easily frightened. This is not a bad thing with so many predators around.
- Although it can fly swiftly when it needs to, the most common view of a friendly ground dove is of a small brown bird running away!
Download this drawing, colour it in and send it in to us! We would love to see your version of the friendly ground doves!
JOIN US TOMORROW WHEN WE WILL BE GOING BATTY!
Do not forget to download the colour-in drawing here, send us your coloured pictures of the friendly ground doves!