The Story
I photographed this Ruddy Ground Dove (Columbina talpacoti) on a moss-covered branch at Caracolí Bird House, a rural birding lodge in the vereda Zuria outside Villavicencio, in Meta, Colombia. The warm ruddy plumage, gray head and black wing spots are all visible here. It is very common in scrub and open country, including farmland and town centers, where it feeds on grain alongside feral pigeons. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame from about 11 meters with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/45 sec, f/16, ISO 3200. The lodge is a public eBird hotspot, so the birds seen there go into a shared record that anyone can use.
©2026 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Ruddy Ground Dove (Columbina talpacoti) belongs to the family Columbidae (Pigeons and Doves) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2020), with the population trend listed as increasing. Source: IUCN Red List