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Habitat and breeding
Description
Diet and behaviour
Taxonomy
References
External links
Blue ground dove

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blue ground dove

male

female
Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]

Scientific classificationEdit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Columbiformes
Family: Columbidae
Genus: Claravis
Oberholser, 1899
Species: C. pretiosa
Binomial name
Claravis pretiosa
(Ferrari-Perez, 1886)

The blue ground dove (Claravis pretiosa) is a small New World tropical dove. It is
a resident breeder from southeastern Mexico to northwestern Peru and northern
Argentina, and on Trinidad in the Caribbean.

Habitat and breeding

The blue ground dove is relatively common in open woodland, forest edges, clearings
and roadsides, especially in more humid areas. It is found from sea level to about
1200 m altitude. It builds a flimsy dish nest of twigs 1–11 m high in a tree and
lays two white eggs.

Description
Blue ground doves are small pigeons, 20 cm long with a weight of 65-72 g. Adult
males have blue-grey upperparts and paler grey underparts, becoming grey-white on
the face. The flight feathers and outer tail feathers are blackish, and the wings
are boldly spotted black (these spots often forming distinct bands). The iris is
red or yellow, the bare eyering is green, and the legs are flesh-pink. The female
has a grey-brown head neck and breast, becoming pale blue-grey on the underwings
and belly. The back is ruddy brown, contrasting with the chestnut rump and tail.
The spots in the wings are chestnut-brown. Young birds resemble the female, but
have ruddy scaling on the back.

In most of its range, the male is unlikely to be confused with other species, but
can locally be confused with the members of the genus Paraclaravis. The female also
resembles the females of the members of the genus Paraclaravis, but at most
localities it is more likely to be confused with the female ruddy ground dove,
which is smaller and has blackish (not chestnut-brown) markings on the wings. In
most regions where the blue ground dove occurs, a blue-grey and a brown bird flying
through the trees together is bound to be this species.

Diet and behaviour

Blue ground doves occur singly, in pairs or sometimes in small groups. They feed
mainly on the ground on seeds and small insects, and take grit. The male's song,
given from the treetops, is a loud boop.

Taxonomy
The genus Claravis was introduced in 1899 by the American ornithologist Harry C.
Oberholser with the blue ground dove as the type species.[2][3] The genus name
combines the Latin clarus meaning "distinct" or "clear" with avis meaning "bird".
[4] Claravis formerly included the maroon-chested ground dove and purple-winged
ground dove in addition to the blue ground dove, but the former two species were
reassigned to the genus Paraclaravis due to the finding that the traditional
Claravis was non-monophyletic. A study carried out using sequences of four
mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene, that included representatives from 15 of
the 17 species in the group, recovered blue ground dove to be the clade with high
support.[5]

References
BirdLife International (2020). "Claravis pretiosa". IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species. 2020: e.T22690809A139734486. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-
3.RLTS.T22690809A139734486.en. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
Oberholser, Harry C. (1899). "Some untenable names in ornithology". Proceedings of
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 51: 201–216 [203].
Peters, James Lee, ed. (1937). Check-List of Birds of the World. Vol. 3.
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 203.
Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London:
Christopher Helm. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
Sweet, A.D.; Maddox, J.D.; Johnson, K.P. (2017). "A complete molecular phylogeny
of Claravis confirms its paraphyly within small New World ground-doves (Aves:
Peristerinae) and implies multiple plumage state transitions". Journal of Avian
Biology. 48 (3): 459–464. doi:10.1111/jav.01077.
ffrench, Richard (1991). A Guide to the Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (2nd ed.).
Comstock Publishing. ISBN 0-8014-9792-2.
Hilty, Steven L (2003). Birds of Venezuela. London: Christopher Helm. ISBN 0-7136-
6418-5.
Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
External links
Blue Ground-Dove in Ceará, Brazil: Photos, vocalization from www.birds-caatinga.com
Taxon identifiers
Claravis pretiosa
Wikidata: Q766613Wikispecies: Claravis pretiosaADW: Claravis_pretiosaAvibase:
C4C9F313CB04424EBirdLife: 22690809BOLD: 89074CoL: VR79BOW: blgdov1eBird:
blgdov1Fossilworks: 373584GBIF: 2495922iNaturalist: 2998IRMNG: 10856333ITIS:
177244IUCN: 22690809NCBI: 115590Neotropical: blgdov1Xeno-canto: Claravis-pretiosa
Claravis
Wikidata: Q133579Wikispecies: ClaravisBOLD: 89073CoL: 3QGWFossilworks: 369136GBIF:
2495913iNaturalist: 979854IRMNG: 1094488ITIS: 177241NCBI: 115589
Categories: IUCN Red List least concern speciesClaravis (bird)Birds of Central
AmericaBirds of South AmericaBirds of the CaribbeanBirds of Trinidad and
TobagoBirds described in 1886Taxa named by Fernando Ferrari-Pérez
This page was last edited on 18 August 2023, at 11:35 (UTC).
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