The white-fronted quail-dove (''Geotrygon leucometopia'') is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Columbidae Columbidae is a bird Family (biology), family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the Order (biology), order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in ...

. It is endemic to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

on the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

island of

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

; it is possibly

extirpated Local extinction, also extirpation, is the termination of a species (or other taxon) in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinctions mark a chan ...

from

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

.del Hoyo, J., N. Collar, G. M. Kirwan, and E. F. J. Garcia (2020). White-fronted Quail-Dove (''Geotrygon leucometopia''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.wfqdov.01 retrieved September 19, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The white-fronted quail-dove and most of the other species in the genus ''Geotrygon'' were previously in ''Oreopeleia''. In addition, it was considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with what is now the

grey-fronted quail-dove The grey-fronted quail-dove (''Geotrygon caniceps'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemism, endemic to Cuba. Taxonomy and systematics The grey-fronted quail-dove and most of what are now the other species in genus ''Ge ...

(''Geotrygon caniceps'') under the name "grey-headed quail-dove". It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Description

The white-fronted quail-dove is about long, and weighs about . The adult has a bold white forehead ("front"), and the rest of its head is slate gray. The sides of its neck have a reddish purple or violet cast that sometimes extends onto the gray breast. The lower belly is reddish. The upperparts are a darker gray than the head and have a metallic purplish blue sheen. Its eyes are red. Juveniles are browner than adults, and do not have the purple sheen on the neck and breast.

Distribution and habitat

The white-fronted quail-dove is confirmed to exist only in a few areas in the west of the Dominican Republic. Unconfirmed historical accounts placed it in adjoining southeastern Haiti as well. It inhabits low elevation subtropical forests,

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

possibly as high as , and a few arid areas with cactus and scrub.

Behavior

Feeding

The white-fronted quail-dove's diet is seeds and small invertebrates like insects, grubs, and caterpillars.

Breeding

The white-fronted quail-dove builds a nest of twigs and leaves lined with rootlets and grass and places it low in undergrowth or a vine tangle. The clutch size is usually one or two, but three eggs have been reported.

Vocalization

The white-fronted quail-dove's song is a "long series of short, low-pitched 'haoo' or 'cooo' notes, given either very rapidly in the former instance or more slowly...in hesecond".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the white-fronted quail-dove as Endangered. It has a very small range and its estimated population of fewer than 1700 adults is declining due to habitat loss, hunting, and introduced predators.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2984142 white-fronted quail-dove Birds of the Dominican Republic Endemic fauna of the Dominican Republic Endemic birds of Hispaniola white-fronted quail-dove Taxa named by Frank Chapman (ornithologist)