Ruddy Quail-Dove

How to find it

Walk slowly and quietly, and scan the floor of mature forest, especially under fruiting trees where fallen fruit collects. Track down calling birds, since the voice is usually the first clue. Birders heard its low mournful calls along the La Gamba to Golfito road, so a quiet roadside can pay off. Rainy or very cloudy days are said to make quail-doves more likely to show themselves, as are places where they are used to people. A male returning to one stretch of trail for nesting material gave one group very good looks, so watch for repeat visits.

How to recognise it

Look for a short-tailed, stout-bodied dove. The sexes look clearly different.

Male: pinkish-buff face and throat, a rufous forehead, and rufous-chestnut upperparts with a purple gloss.

Female: dull cinnamon face and forehead, a whitish throat, and dull olive-brown upperparts, sides and flanks.

The species is about 19 to 28 cm long, with a rust-colored back and wings and a facial mask of the same color. The breast, rump and stripe under the eye are lighter brown. A paper on Costa Rican records says it differs from other quail-doves in its duller brown plumage and its red bill. Its pale forehead and breast against a darker back make it hard to notice in the forest, as Skutch observed. These plumage details describe the species across its whole range.

What it sounds like

Recording: Donald Davesne, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It feeds on the ground, mostly on seeds, and also takes small invertebrates. Skutch wrote that it forages over the ground for fallen fruits. It prefers walking to flying unless pressed hard, and when flushed it takes off with a quick, whirring burst of wings. Skutch also noted that it lowers the front of its body when enemies approach. At La Selva, a guide watched a male return again and again to the same stretch of trail to collect nesting material, which gave the group very good looks.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is fairly common in the lowlands and foothills of the southern Pacific slope, up to about 1200 m. On the Caribbean side it is scarcer in the lowlands and more numerous on the foothills between about 150 and 1000 m. It also crosses to the Pacific side through low passes in the northern ranges.

Across its range it lives in humid forest, cacao plantations and shady gardens, and also in woodland and scrub forest. It has adapted to coffee plantations but is somewhat sensitive to forest fragmentation.

When to see it

In the El General basin of southern Costa Rica, calling is most often heard from March to June. Nesting starts in April, once the forest has begun to get wetter, the breeding season peaks in May and June, and some nests are still occupied in July and early August.

Similar birds

Violaceous Quail-Dove also has a reddish bill, but the Ruddy is more red-brown with a head pattern, while the Violaceous has a plain grayish head and contrasting white underparts. A Violaceous can look like a White-tipped Dove; a red bill, gray head and rufous tail point to the quail-dove. In dim undergrowth, Skutch was briefly fooled by a Gray-chested Dove, which looks similar at a distance. Both have a paler forehead, foreneck and breast than the crown, back and wings.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Costa Rican list name is Paloma-Perdiz Rojiza. Another Costa Rican site uses the shorter Paloma Rojiza, a name also used for the Ruddy Pigeon, so the two can be mixed up.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list gives it as a resident (R), and it is fairly common in the southern Pacific lowlands and foothills.

Photography tips

Quail-doves are said to show themselves more on rainy or very cloudy days, and where they are used to people. A bird collecting nesting material on the same stretch of trail at La Selva returned again and again, which is the kind of habit worth watching for. At Carara, one slipped out onto the Quebrada Bonita trail ahead of a group.