Gray-headed Dove

How to find it

Listen first, because the call from the understory is often the easiest way to detect it. It is common around Upala and Río Frío and in western Nicoya, and uncommon to rare elsewhere, so start there. Scan the ground at forest edges and shaded thickets near streams, looking for a single bird or a pair. Along the Río Frío, guides have had to work with patience to tell these doves from White-tipped Dove. The river bank near the dock gave the best views on one tour. If one flushes, watch for the white tail corners.

How to recognise it

Adults show a clear set of marks:

Grey crown and neck.

Olive-brown back and wings.

Pinkish breast fading to a white belly.

Black bill and red legs.

Broad white tips on the tail.

It is a fairly large dove, about 24 to 26 cm long. Young birds lack the grey on the head, so they look plainer than the adults. Like Gray-chested Dove, it has reddish bare skin around the eye, a feature White-tipped Dove generally lacks. A pale yellow-green iris is another clue against White-tipped Dove, whose iris is orange.

What it sounds like

Recording: River Ahlquist, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

This is a shy ground dove that stays close to cover and spends much of its time walking on the leaf litter. It is mostly seen on the ground but also perches in trees. It usually forages alone or in pairs. When flushed it flies off fast with loud wing claps and shows white corners in the tail. Its flight is direct, with regular wingbeats and a clattering of the wings, as is typical of pigeons. At a spot in the far north, a group sat on the riverbank in the late afternoon, and more than a dozen were later seen feeding with cattle in the marshes of Medio Queso.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is resident in the Pacific lowlands, reaching 1000 m on the Nicoya Peninsula. It also occurs in the far northwest Caribbean lowlands. In Nicaragua the species switches from the Caribbean slope to the Pacific slope, and it continues onto the Pacific side of western Costa Rica.

Across Central America it lives below about 1,500 m and is most numerous below 500 m. It uses humid lowland and foothill forest with dense understory, and also visits secondary growth, forest edges and shaded thickets near streams. It avoids open country.

Similar birds

Costa Rican birders can confuse it with Gray-chested Dove and White-tipped Dove. Useful differences are voice, eye-ring colour, iris colour, the pattern of white in the tail, and the colours of head, neck and back. On the Pacific slope, Gray-chested Dove is darker, with less white on the outer tail tips, a brown patch on the back of the head, a dark vinaceous belly and a longer song. Around Arenal, White-tipped Dove was the common Leptotila dove and walked into the feeder area most mornings, while Gray-headed is the one with a very restricted range.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it Paloma Coronigrís and also Yuré. One Costa Rican bird-watching site uses a different Spanish name, Paloma Montaráz Cabecigris, which is the name used in Spain and in general Spanish references.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list gives it the status R, meaning resident, and the IUCN rates the species Least Concern.

Photography tips

Its habit of walking on the leaf litter near cover means patience pays. Wait quietly at a river bank or shaded thicket edge and let it walk into view rather than approaching, since a flushed bird leaves fast with loud wing claps.