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Grey-fronted Dove | Leptotila rufaxilla
Grijskruinduif | Paloma frentigrís | Juriti-de-testa-branca
The Grey-fronted Dove is a medium-sized, brown ground dove of the Amazonian lowlands, with a blue-grey crown and a pale, almost white forehead. It lives on the floor of humid forest and, when disturbed, flies off low and fast between the trunks. The scientific name rufaxilla refers to the rufous axillaries and underwing.
Voice
A low, hollow, drawn-out coo, a single note that swells slightly and fades, ooooo, repeated at intervals of a few seconds, often from a low branch or the ground.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
25–28 cm, with a fairly long, rounded tail. Forehead pale greyish white, merging into a blue-grey crown; the nape is brown with a purplish gloss. The bare skin around the eye is red. Upperparts olive-brown; throat whitish, breast pinkish grey-brown, belly white. The underwing is rufous, visible in flight. The outer tail feathers have narrow white tips. Legs red. The sexes are alike; young birds are duller, with rusty fringes to the breast and wing feathers.
Confusion species
White-tipped Dove Leptotila verreauxi has a less contrasting, pinkish-grey head without a blue-grey crown, broader white tail tips and, in the guide area, usually blue skin around the eye; it more often lives in drier and more open terrain. Yungas Dove Leptotila megalura lives higher on the east slope of the Andes in Bolivia and is larger, with a longer tail. Ruddy Quail-Dove Geotrygon montana is smaller and shorter-tailed, with rufous upperparts and a pale cheek stripe.
Habitat
Humid terra firme lowland forest, várzea, gallery forest, dense forest edges and secondary forest, also woodland bordering savannas, from the lowlands to about 1000 m. It walks on the forest floor, taking seeds, fallen fruit and small invertebrates. The nest is a loose platform of twigs, low in a shrub or small tree.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia east of the Andes, in Amazonia and on the edges of the llanos; in Ecuador in the eastern lowlands; in Peru in the Amazonian lowlands and the lower foothills of the east slope; in Bolivia in the north and east of the lowlands. Absent west of the Andes and from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in Venezuela, the Guianas, much of Brazil, Paraguay and north-eastern Argentina.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen in the early morning for the low coo in forest along rivers and around lodges in the Amazonian lowlands. Walk quietly along forest trails: the bird often walks ahead of you along the path before flying off low.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Common in much of its range; locally declining through deforestation, but tolerates secondary forest.
Scientific name
Leptotila rufaxilla | (Richard, L-C & Bernard, J-P, 1792)
Richard, L-C & Bernard, J-P described the species in 1792 as Columba Rufaxilla; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Leptotila was introduced in 1837 by Swainson. The genus name (originally Leptoptila) combines Greek leptos, 'delicate, slender', with ptilon, 'feather'. The species name combines Latin rufus, 'rufous', with axilla, 'armpit', for the rufous underwing. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.