Bridled Quail-Dove Geotrygon mystacea Scientific name definitions

The Bridled Quail-Dove is a medium-sized, ground-dwelling dove typically found foraging in the leaf litter within montane forests and lowland woodlands. It is not known to make any substantive daily movements and, as such, is a sedentary resident with a restricted distribution extending from Puerto Rico east and southward through the Lesser Antilles to St. Lucia. The species is inconspicuous and usually seen singly or in pairs, though aggregations of over a dozen may occur especially in the nonbreeding period. It is primarily found in forested drainages and along slopes with dense understory and heavy leaf litter where it forages for fruits and seeds. When disturbed, this species’ habit is to walk away rather than fly. It walks with a purposeful stride, making occasional pauses during which it bobs its head and tail in sequence. Similar to other columbids (Columbidae), the Bridled Quail-Dove sets clutches of 2 eggs in a fragile, spindly nest of twigs up to 6 meters above the ground. The species has not fared well in areas of human activity and numbers have declined across its range, presumably due to habitat loss, but also hunting and predation by introduced species. It is especially susceptible to population level impacts from hurricanes. The Bridled Quail-Dove is locally common in some strongholds, but uncommon to extremely rare across most of the islands (1 Raffaele, H. A., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele (1998). A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ) and, depending on the location, its status varies from a hunted species (2 Hilton, G., L. Martin, and J. Daley (2006). Montserrat. In Important Bird Areas in the United Kingdom Overseas Territories: Priority Sites for Conservation (S. M. Sanders, Editor). Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, London, United Kingdom. pp. 171–184. Close , 3 Levesque, A., C. Eraud, A. Villers, L. Malglaive, G. Leblond, F. Delcroix, E. Delcroix, A. Chabrolle, N. Barré, and P. Coquelet (2020). Bilans 2014–2019 du programmes STOC-Guadeloupe. Rapport AMAZONA no. 64. Close ) to a conservation priority (4 Garcia-Bermudez, M. A., J. A. Cruz-Burgos, E. Ventosa-Febles, and R. Lopez-Ortiz (2005). Puerto Rico’s Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy. Puerto Rico Department of Environmental Resources, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Close ) to endangered (5 Platenberg, R. J., F. E. Hayes, D. B. McNair, and J. J. Pierce (2005). A Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy for the U.S. Virgin Islands. Division of Fish and Wildlife, St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. Close ).