The blue ground dove (''Claravis pretiosa'') is a small

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

tropical

dove Columbidae is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with small heads, relatively short necks and slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. ...

. It is a resident breeder from southeastern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

to northwestern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and northern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and on

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

in 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 ...

Habitat and breeding

The blue ground dove is relatively common in open woodland, forest edges, clearings and roadsides, especially in more humid areas. It is found from sea level to about 1200 m altitude. It builds a flimsy dish

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold Egg (biology), eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of ...

of twigs 1–11 m high in a tree and lays two white eggs.

Description

Blue ground doves are small pigeons, 20 cm long with a weight of 65–72 g. Adult males have blue-grey upperparts and paler grey underparts, becoming grey-white on the face. The flight feathers and outer tail feathers are blackish, and the wings are boldly spotted black (these spots often forming distinct bands). The iris is red or yellow, the bare eyering is green, and the legs are flesh-pink. The female has a grey-brown head neck and breast, becoming pale blue-grey on the underwings and belly. The back is ruddy brown, contrasting with the chestnut rump and tail. The spots in the wings are chestnut-brown. Young birds resemble the female, but have ruddy scaling on the back. In most of its range, the male is unlikely to be confused with other species, but can locally be confused with the members of the genus ''

Paraclaravis ''Paraclaravis'' is a genus that contains two species of doves that live in the Neotropics, with ranges in Middle America and South America. ''Paraclaravis'' doves have red eyes and pink legs, and the plumages of the males are primarily light gr ...

''. The female also resembles the females of the members of the genus ''Paraclaravis'', but at most localities it is more likely to be confused with the female

ruddy ground dove The ruddy ground dove (''Columbina talpacoti'') is a small New World tropical dove. It is a resident breeder from Mexico south to Brazil, Peru and Paraguay, and northern Argentina, and on Trinidad and Tobago. Individual birds can sometimes be see ...

, which is smaller and has blackish (not chestnut-brown) markings on the wings. In most regions where the blue ground dove occurs, a blue-grey and a brown bird flying through the trees together is bound to be this species.

Diet and behaviour

Blue ground doves occur singly, in pairs or sometimes in small groups. They feed mainly on the ground on seeds and small

insect Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...

s, and take grit. The male's song, given from the treetops, is a loud ''boop''.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Claravis'' was introduced in 1899 by the American ornithologist Harry C. Oberholser with the blue ground dove as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. The genus name combines the Latin ''clarus'' meaning "distinct" or "clear" with ''avis'' meaning "bird". ''Claravis'' formerly included the maroon-chested ground dove and purple-winged ground dove in addition to the blue ground dove, but the former two species were reassigned to the genus ''Paraclaravis'' due to the finding that the traditional ''Claravis'' was non-

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

. A study carried out using sequences of four mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene, that included representatives from 15 of the 17 species in the group, recovered blue ground dove to be the clade with high support.

References

* * * Stiles and Skutch, ''A guide to the birds of Costa Rica''

External links

Blue Ground-Dove in Ceará, Brazil: Photos, vocalization
fro
www.birds-caatinga.com
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q766613, from2=Q133579 blue ground dove Birds of Central America Birds of South America Birds of the Caribbean Birds of Trinidad and Tobago blue ground dove blue ground dove