Long-tailed Ground Dove
Uropelia campestris
Unmistakable ground dove. Brownish above and whitish below. Note the black spotting on the wings and the yellow eye-ring and legs. In flight the tail is V-shaped, with black sides and white tips. Found in grasslands and at the woodland edge, where it feeds on the ground. The song is a series of high-pitched “wha-ooop...wha-ooop...wha-ooop...” notes.
Identification
The long-tailed ground dove is 15.7 to 17.7 cm (6.2 to 7.0 in) long. The adult male's forehead and crown are bluish gray. Its upperparts are brown with a pinkish tinge on the hindneck. The folded wing shows two iridescent purple bands and a row of large purplish black spots. The throat and breast are pinkish mauve fading to white on the belly. The long tail's central feathers are brown and the outer ones black with white tips. The eye is gray to blue surrounded by bare yellow to orange skin. The adult female's eye surround is paler than the male's; its underparts are paler pink, its hindneck and shoulders more olive-brown, and the rest of the upperparts an ashier gray. Juveniles are duller and more grayish brown overall, and the bands and spots on the wings are chestnut and buff.
Taxonomy
The long-tailed ground dove is the only member of its genus. It shares characteristics with both Columbina and Claravis doves but cannot be placed definitively in either. It is monotypic according to the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and Clements taxonomies, but the Handbook of the Birds of the World adds subspecies U. c. figginsi to the nominate.
- Scientific name
- Uropelia campestris
- Authority
- (Spix, 1825)
- Order
- Columbiformes
- Family
- Columbidae
- Genus
- Uropelia
Range and habitat
The long-tailed ground dove is found discontinuously in much of central Brazil and adjoining Bolivia. It inhabits drier (but seasonally wet) grassland, savanna, woodland edges, and scrubby parkland, usually near watercourses. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to 1,100 m (3,600 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The long-tailed ground dove forages in pairs or small groups, taking a wide variety of seeds from the ground.<p>Nothing is known about the long-tailed ground dove's breeding phenology.<p>The long-tailed ground dove's song is a "series of rather high-pitched, disyllabic 'wha-ooop...wha-ooop...wha-ooop...' notes".
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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