At a Glance
The Grenada Dove is the national bird of Grenada and one of the world’s rarest doves. Some scientists think that the dove may always have been rare, but today it can only be found in Mt. Hartman and in the Perseverance, Woodford and Beausejour area with dry and mixed deciduous forests near the coast. These small areas are now separated by urbanized areas, so it’s unlikely that the two subpopulations are able to breed.
These shy and largely solitary doves spend much of their time on the forest floor and seem to survive best in habitats with thorny leguminous (which are plants that produce legumes and are in the legume family) trees and in dry coastal scrub-woodland. They also like fairly dense forest cover, with 50% or more canopy cover.
The biggest threat to the Grenada Dove is from the ongoing destruction and fragmentation of its dry forest habitat for housing, commercial developments, farming and fires. Little of their habitat is protected. Non-native species, including mongooses, cats and rats, which are abundant in Grenada and readily prey on the ground-dwelling doves are an additional threat. Climate change is a further pressure. It takes a long time for the doves and their habitat to recover from major storms, and high-intensity hurricanes are becoming more common in the Caribbean. Droughts are also becoming increasingly severe, leaving the doves without reliable water sources and their habitats at increased risk from fires.
At a glance
Taxa
Birds
Geography
Grenada
Status
Critically Endangered
Habitat
Dry coastal forest; mixed deciduous forest
Estimated Population
Fewer than 200 mature individuals
Threats
Habitat loss and degradation; invasive predators; natural disasters
Potential Recovery Actions
Habitat protection; habitat restoration; invasive species control
