The Story
I photographed this White-throated Quail-Dove (Zentrygon frenata) at Finca La Florida, at Kilometer 18 near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, at about 2,020 meters, in February 2021. Females are browner rather than gray, and young birds look like females with dark barring above and below. Known nests have been simple platforms of twigs placed 2 to 4 meters up, in a tangle of vegetation or on a horizontal branch fork. Its breeding season appears to vary across a range that runs through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Canon R5 with the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L for this one, at 1/90 sec, f/6.7, ISO 12800. The San Antonio cloud forest at Kilometer 18 is recognized as an Important Bird Area and a Key Biodiversity Area, with the Multicolored Tanager as its symbol species.
©2022 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-throated Quail-Dove (Zentrygon frenata) 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 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List