White-faced Quail-Dove

The white-faced quail-dove is 28 to 31.5 cm (11.0 to 12.4 in) long. Eleven specimens had weights ranging from 158 to 339 g (5.6 to 12.0 oz). Adults' crowns are gray, from very light in front fairly deep at the back and into the nape. The hindneck and sides of the neck are cinnamon; on the latter loose feathers give the impression of dark furrows. The rest of the upperparts are chestnut and the back has a bluish violet gloss. The wings are dark dusky grayish brown. The face is pale grayish buff and the chin and throat pale buff. The breast is buffy gray that pales and adds a cinnamon tone at the belly. The eye is orange to red surrounded by bare blue-gray skin. The legs and feet are red. Juveniles' crowns are pale brown, their upperparts brown with dusky bars, and the breast and sides tawny brown with dusky bars.

The white-faced quail-dove is found discontinuously in several southern states of Mexico, much of Guatemala and Honduras, and small areas of northern El Salvador and northwestern Nicaragua. It inhabits humid montane forest of several types including evergreen and pine-evergreen, and also shade coffee plantations. In elevation it ranges between 1,000 and 2,700 m (3,300 and 8,900 ft).

The white-faced quail-dove forages singly or in pairs while walking on the ground, where it tends to favor dense cover. Its diet has not been documented but is assumed to be seeds, fallen fruits, and maybe insects.