[3] Its name is derived from the semi-collar of black feathers on the lower nape,[4] a feature shared with a number of Streptopelia species.

[5] Their body feathers are darkest on the upper side, where they are coloured in dull tones of grey and brown, with shades of lavender on the nape.

Only closed forest or plantations,[3] or the extensive waterless dune fields and gravel plains of the Namib[6] are unsuited to their requirements.

[2] In addition, they are preyed on by reptiles, wildcats, jackals, genets, herons, storks, eagles and barn owls.

[4] These doves are usually found alone or in pairs, although they do form larger flocks around roosts or sources of food and water,[3][4] sometimes comprising hundreds of birds.

They are quite noisy in these groups, not only for the various calls they make throughout the day, or often into (mainly moonlit)[6] nights, but also due to the loud clatter[4] of their wings when they take flight.

[4] A raspy, snarling "kooorr", or "knarrrrrr", call is often given when it alights on a perch,[2] arrives at an incubating mate or chases another dove away.

[5] They feed mainly on seeds (of grasses, cereal grains, lupins, milkweeds,[5] alien acacias and pines), but also on broken fruit and berries (of oaks, gums, currants and Lantana), and insects on occasion (earthworms, termites, weevils and other).

[6] Other recorded food items include small sedge bulbs, fleshy succulent leaves, aloe nectar and sugary aphid secretions.

From a perch or on the ground, the male will engage in a bowing display synchronized with a rolling crooning, “uk-carrroooo, ...”,[4] while the throat is inflated.

It is made of twigs and leaf petioles that are carefully selected by the male[5] (as in other dove species) and delivered to her at the nest site.