The Tuxtla quail-dove (''Zentrygon carrikeri'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Columbidae Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to southeastern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The Tuxtla quail-dove is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. It and the

purplish-backed quail-dove The purplish-backed quail-dove (''Zentrygon lawrencii'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The purplish-backed quail-dove is monotypic. However, the population of it ...

(''Zentrygon lawrencii'') of

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

were previously considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

.Baptista, L. F., P. W. Trail, H. M. Horblit, P. F. D. Boesman, and E. F. J. Garcia (2020). Tuxtla Quail-Dove (''Zentrygon carrikeri''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.tuqdov1.01 retrieved September 23, 2021

Description

The Tuxtla quail-dove is long. The adult's head, neck, throat and breast are light bluish gray and the flanks light brown. It has a wide black malar stripe. Its back and wings are olive brown with little iridescence. Juveniles are darker all over with cinnamon edges to the upperparts' feathers and buff bars on the breast.

Distribution and habitat

The Tuxtla quail-dove is found only on two volcanos in the

Sierra de los Tuxtlas The Sierra de Los Tuxtlas (Tuxtlas Mountains) are a volcanic belt and mountain range along the southeastern Veracruz Gulf coast in Eastern Mexico. The Los Tuxtlas Biosphere Reserve (Biósfera Los Tuxtlas) includes the coastal and higher elevations ...

of southeastern Mexico's

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

state, Volcán de San Martín and Sierra de Santa Marta. It inhabits humid

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zone ...

and

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

at elevations between .

Behavior

Feeding

The Tuxtla quail-dove forages singly or in pairs. No details of its diet have been published but it probably feeds on fruit, seeds, and invertebrates found in leaf litter.

Breeding

The only documented Tuxtla quail-dove nest was a loosely constructed platform supported by bamboo shoots; it contained one egg.

Vocalization

The Tuxtla quail-dove's song is "a three-syllable note 'whu-hu-whUuuw', with a clear emphasis on the last syllable." The overslurred last syllable is all that is usually heard at a distance.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the Tuxtla quail-dove as Endangered due to its very small and fragmented range that has undergone almost complete deforestation.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q27074683 Endemic birds of Eastern Mexico Zentrygon Birds described in 1941 Taxa named by Alexander Wetmore Taxonomy articles created by Polbot