Bar-shouldered doves are usually found in thick vegetation where water is present, damp gullies, forests and gorges, mangroves, plantations, swamps, eucalyptus woodlands, tropical and sub-tropical scrubs and river margins.

The bar-shouldered dove is found throughout the east coast from southern New South Wales (with increasing numbers in the Blue Mountains and Illawarra regions), north to Cape York Peninsula and west to the Pilbara region (about Onslow, Western Australia).

They have been observed with increasing frequency in southern Australia (specifically north-western Victoria) but may have been displaced in other natural locations by introduced species[citation needed].

They have also been observed in the Torres Strait and are also found in other countries of the South Pacific region, such as Papua New Guinea.

A bar-shouldered dove was found to be infected by Toxoplasma gondii, the agent of toxoplasmosis, in a French zoo.