Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania [United Republic of], Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Senegambia through most of western and central Africa to Ethiopia and Eritrea, and south through Zaire to southern Angola, south-central Zambia, eastern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and extreme eastern South Africa. Said to occur on Bioko (Fernando Póo), but this is now considered unlikely.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Blue-spotted Wood Dove (Turtur afer) [XC444680]
by Rick Nuttall from Tartar Falls, West Pokot County, Kenya (call)
Blue-spotted Wood Dove (Turtur afer) [XC619322]
by Rod Cassidy from Le Copalier, For\u00eat Class\u00e9e Comoe-Leraba, Cascades, Burkina Faso (song)
Subspecies
Related to Black-billed Wood-Dove (Turtur abyssinicus), and often occurs sympatrically with either Black-billed Wood-Dove (Turtur abyssinicus) or Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove (Turtur chalcospilos). Birds of highlands of Ethiopia formerly awarded subspecies mearnsi, and those of Mt Kilimanjaro zone subspecies kilimensis, but neither nowadays considered valid.