Purplish-backed Quail-Dove
Zentrygon lawrencii
Plump ground-dwelling dove, not very colorful compared with other quail-doves. Gray overall, darker brownish on wings, with paler whitish face and dark mustache line. Pinkish-red legs. Iridescent purple patch on back can be difficult to see. Sexes alike. Prefers forests, usually on the ground unless flushed up into the lower levels of a tree. Like most quail-doves, often best seen by quietly walking along trails at dawn and dusk.
Identification
Male purplish-backed quail-doves are 26 to 27 cm (10 to 11 in) long and females are about 25 cm (9.8 in) long. The species weighs about 220 g (7.8 oz). Adults have a grayish white forehead and a bluish to greenish gray crown, nape, and hindneck. The mantle is dull purple and the rest of the upperparts and the wings are olive-brown to blackish brown with some reddish tinge. The central tail feathers are purple-brown and the outer ones blackish with gray tips. The face and throat are white with a black malar line and a line from the bill to the eye. The neck and breast are slate gray with greenish sides, the belly center pale buff to cinnamon, and the flanks chocolate. The eye is browish orange to red surrounded by bare magenta skin. The legs and feet are also magenta. The juvenile lacks the green and purple of the mantle, its facial pattern is less conspicuous, and most feathers have buff fringes.
Taxonomy
The purplish-backed quail-dove is monotypic. However, the population of it in northwestern Costa Rica was at one time considered a subspecies. The purplish-backed quail-dove and the Tuxtla quail-dove (Zentrygon carrikeri) of Mexico were previously considered conspecific.
- Scientific name
- Zentrygon lawrencii
- Authority
- (Salvin, 1874)
- Order
- Columbiformes
- Family
- Columbidae
- Genus
- Zentrygon
Range and habitat
The purplish-backed quail-dove is resident from the Cordillera de Guanacaste in northern Costa Rica southeast to central Panama with scattered populations from there to Darién Province. It inhabits cool, wet, dense montane forest. In elevation it ranges from 400 to 800 m (1,300 to 2,600 ft) on the Caribbean slope but as high as 2,600 m (8,500 ft) in some other areas.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The purplish-backed quail-dove usually walks or runs from danger rather than flying, though it sometimes will fly to an elevated perch.<p>The purplish-backed quail-dove forages on the ground, usually singly or in pairs. It feeds on fruit, seeds, insects, and worms.<p>The purplish-backed quail-dove's breeding season in Costa Rica spans from June to October but apparently starts earlier in Panama. It builds a bulky but loose nest as a shallow bowl of sticks lined with finer materials and places it in dense vegetation near the ground. It lays a single egg.<p>The purplish-backed quail-dove's song is a "three-syllable note 'pum-wha-huUUu', with a clear emphasis on the last syllable." The last syllable is all that is usually heard at a distance.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Cryptic Becard
Pachyramphus salvini
Small becard occurring from southwest Colombia to northwest Peru, mainly on the west slope of the Andes and in the Marañon drainage, but (perhaps seasonally?) on the east slope of the Andes as well. Mostly found in foothills, in middle to upper levels of humid montane forest, dry forest, and more open second-growth. Male is mostly gray with bold white edges on the wing feathers and a black cap with pale spectacles. Compare with White-winged Becard, which has a black back and dark lores. Female is very different; look for her brown cap bordered with black, white spectacles, pale yellowish belly, and tawny edges on wing feathers. Extremely similar to Black-and-white Becard, with potential range overlap on the east slope of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru. Male Cryptic shows a narrower upper wingbar, paler lores, a grayer upperside of the tail, and a more slender bill than Black-and-white. Female Cryptic has a duller brownish crown with a narrower black border. These features may all be difficult or impossible to assess in the field; some birds are best left unidentified. Also note voice: song a fast series of two sweet downslurred whistles followed by a stuttered upslurred whistle, often repeated two or three times. Black-and-white’s song is slower, with longer notes.
Snow Partridge
Lerwa lerwa
A stone-colored terrestrial bird of stony hillsides, mountain ridges, and meadows above treeline. Adults speckled gray and white above, with dense rusty streaking on white underparts, red bill, and deep red legs. Usually forages in small groups, often in very exposed areas such as cliff sides and rocky ridges. Song, often given by multiple birds in a group simultaneously, is high-pitched and has a slippery, squeaky quality like wet shoes on tile; male song louder and ascending, female’s softer and descending.
Black-backed Sibia
Heterophasia melanoleuca
Medium-sized tree-dweller which resembles a cross between a tiny magpie and a shrike. Dark above and snowy-white below. If seen well, note coffee-brown back and dark blue gloss on the wings, crown, and tail. Pale panels in the wings most obvious in flight. Travels in pairs and small groups through the upper and middle storeys of hilly broadleaf evergreen forest, occasionally descending down to the ground. Song is a unique metallic trilled whistle that ends with a descending note. Calls are harsh rattling notes, typically given in series.
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