The purplish-backed quail-dove (''Zentrygon lawrencii'') is a species of

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 found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The purplish-backed quail-dove 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 ...

. 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 The Tuxtla quail-dove or Veracruz quail-dove (''Zentrygon carrikeri'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is endemic to southeastern Mexico. Taxonomy and systematics The Tuxtla quail-dove is monotypic. It and the purplish-back ...

(''Zentrygon carrikeri'') of Mexico were previously 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 ...

. Baptista, L. F., P. W. Trail, H. M. Horblit, and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Purplish-backed Quail-Dove (''Zentrygon lawrencii''), 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.pbqdov1.01 retrieved September 23, 2021

Description

Male purplish-backed quail-doves are long and females are about long. The species weighs about . 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.

Distribution and habitat

The purplish-backed quail-dove is resident from the

Cordillera de Guanacaste The Cordillera de Guanacaste, also called Guanacaste Cordillera, are a volcanic mountain range in northern Costa Rica near the border with Nicaragua. The mountain range stretches 110 km from northwest to the southeast and contains mostly comp ...

in northern Costa Rica southeast to central Panama with scattered populations from there to

Darién Province Darién (, ; ) is a Provinces of Panama, province in Panama whose capital city is La Palma, Darién, La Palma. With an area of , it is located at the eastern end of the country and bordered to the north by the province of Panamá Province, Panam ...

. It inhabits cool, wet, dense

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 ...

. In elevation it ranges from on the Caribbean slope but as high as in some other areas.

Behavior

Movement

The purplish-backed quail-dove usually walks or runs from danger rather than flying, though it sometimes will fly to an elevated perch.

Feeding

The purplish-backed quail-dove forages on the ground, usually singly or in pairs. It feeds on fruit, seeds, insects, and worms.

Breeding

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.

Vocalization

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.

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 purplish-backed quail-dove as being of Least Concern. Though it appears to be fairly common, it "could become threatened if forest habitat continues to be destroyed at present rates".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q27074686 purplish-backed quail-dove Birds of the Talamancan montane forests Birds of the Darién Gap purplish-backed quail-dove purplish-backed quail-dove Taxonomy articles created by Polbot