The Story
This White-throated Quail-Dove (Zentrygon frenata) was photographed at Bosque de Niebla Birding & Nature, in the Kilometer 18 cloud forest near Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, at about 2,020 meters. 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, and two adults have been seen trading places on a nest. Its breeding season appears to vary across its range, which runs through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I photographed it with a Canon R5 and the RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L, at 1/125 sec, f/4.5, ISO 12800, −1 EV. Bosque de Niebla Birding & Nature sits at Kilometer 18 in Parcelación El Silencio, La Elvira, and visits are by advance booking.
©2023 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