Violaceous Quail-Dove

How to find it

Use classic quail-dove tactics: walk slowly, stay silent, and watch the floor of mature forest below fruiting trees. Track down calling birds, and if you hear an odd-sounding White-tipped Dove in suitable forest, look for the perched bird. Scan above the forest floor as well as the ground. Even in the most reliable places it is rarely seen or heard, so expect focused effort.

How to recognise it

This is a small dove, about 20 to 24 cm long and roughly 93 to 150 g across its range.

Adult males show:

- a violet nape and upper back, fading to warm brown on the wings

- purple-tinged gray on the crown, face and breast

- a white belly

- a crimson, slightly downcurved bill

- coral red legs

- an unstriped face

Females are duller and browner. Purple shows only on the back of the neck and upper back, and the face and throat are pale gray.

A handy shortcut in Costa Rica: a dove that looks like a White-tipped Dove but has a red bill, gray head and rufous tail is a Violaceous Quail-Dove.

Behaviour and diet

It is more tree-dwelling than most quail-doves and sometimes perches fairly high in the understory. It still comes down to the ground to eat fallen fruit and probably small invertebrates.

A perched bird may sit high or low on a favorite hanging vine, so a calling bird is worth searching for at several levels. One was watched in advanced, viney second growth inside mature forest.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a scarce, local resident of the Caribbean lowlands and foothills, going up to at least 600 m. It has also been recorded at Pitilla Biological Station in the Guanacaste Conservation Area and near Bijagua.

Across its whole range it lives in primary evergreen forest, tall second growth and even plantations, and it has been found up to at least 1,650 m.

When to see it

Across its range, breeding seems to run from March possibly to November, judging by adults in breeding condition, a nest with two eggs and juveniles. That is not specific to Costa Rica.

Similar birds

The Ruddy Quail-Dove is the species most likely to be confused with it. Ruddy is much browner on head and underparts, has a broad pale stripe behind the eye and is slightly larger. Violaceous has a plainer grayish head and contrasting white underparts. It can also look like a White-tipped Dove, but the red bill, gray head and rufous tail settle it.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans may know it as Paloma perdiz-violácea, and a regional checklist lists it as Perdiz violácea.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list marks it as a resident (R).

Photography tips

Scan above the forest floor as well as the ground, because it is rather more tree-dwelling than other quail-doves and sometimes sits fairly high in the understory. A perched bird may favor a hanging vine, so check both high and low.