Sounds and Vocal Behavior

The song of the Ruddy Quail-Dove is variously described as "a low, mournful, slightly moaning whoooo or ooooooh" (Howell and Webb 1995); as "a mournful coo gradually fading in strength and sometimes in pitch, like blowing across the mouth of a bottle" (Raffaele et al. 1998); "a soft, resonant, and moaning cooo or wooo, repeated at about 2- to 5-sec intervals" (Hilty and Brown 1986); and as "a deep, even-pitched or descending coo, dying away at the end at a pace of about a note every 3 sec" wooOOOoooo" (Lane, in Schulenberg et al. 2007).

The song typically is given from a perch "well up" in the understory, or, less frequently, is given from the ground (Stiles and Skutch 1989).

Additional recordings of vocalizations of Ruddy Quail-Dove can be heard at Macaulay Library and at xeno-canto.

None reported.