Maroon-chested Ground Dove

How to find it

Start with the bamboo, because the dove rarely shows unless bamboo is seeding. Search highland bamboo forest, listen for calling males, and expect to climb toward the sound. Near Cerro de la Muerte, scanning roadside habitat failed, and the bird was found only by hiking up a slope toward its voice. At Irazú, birds were quiet on a cold, misty morning and began calling once the mist burned off and the sun came out. A perched male then gave brief looks. The Nochebuena trails and restaurant area is called the best place to find it there.

How to recognise it

The male is mostly bluish gray with a whitish forehead, cheeks and throat.

The breast and upper belly are maroon.

The wings have large black spots.

The female is grayish brown, with a gray tail that has a wide pale band at the tip.

It is a small dove, about 21 to 22 cm long.

In shape it looks more like a quail-dove than a typical ground-dove such as the Ruddy or Common Ground-Dove, and the maroon chest sets the male apart. One birder at Irazú still remembers the dark wine-colored chest against the very pale head as two males flew past, one low over the ground.

What it sounds like

Recording: Tommy Andriollo, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It feeds heavily, perhaps only, on bamboo seeds. It sometimes visits seed spread on the ground near highland forest in Costa Rica, but bamboo seeding events attract it most.

The bird calls from a tree and may slip to the far side of the trunk if it thinks it is seen.

At a seeding bamboo patch on Chirripó, several doves sang, fed and scampered away at once, and the birder called it a ground-dove jamboree.

Where it lives

Across its range it is almost always found in dense seeding bamboo within montane cloud forest. In Costa Rica it ranges from about 900 to 3,000 m elevation.

The places named for it are all highland ones: the Irazú Volcano area, Poás Volcano, Volcán Barva, Cerro de la Muerte and its páramo, and Chirripó Mountain. On the Irazú trails the path leaves fields and enters bamboo-rich forest.

When to see it

A report from June and July 2021 said doves were at the Irazú Museo Volcán trails most of the time. The author said they do this there each year, though not usually so visibly.

Similar birds

The Blue Ground-Dove looks similar but lives at lower elevations and is fairly common. In Costa Rica the Maroon-chested overlaps with it only in the highlands. Next to Ruddy or Common Ground-Dove, this one has a quail-dove look, and the maroon chest marks the male.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican sources list the Spanish name as Tortolita Serranera. Other Spanish names used elsewhere in the range include Tortolita Pechimorada and Turquita Pechimorada (Honduras).

Status and conservation

The AOCR list gives it resident status in Costa Rica, and IUCN rates the species Least Concern, though it is uncommon to rare.

Photography tips

A calling bird may not be near the road. Scanning from the car and checking roadside habitat found nothing near Cerro de la Muerte, so the birders climbed a steep slope at high altitude toward the voice. Because a calling bird may slip behind the trunk when it feels seen, expect brief looks.