Key West Quail-Dove

Overview
Key West Quail-Dove: Medium dove with red-brown upperparts glossed with purple and green, gray-red nape and crown, white throat and streak below eye, and buff-gray underparts. Upperparts are iridescent. Red bill has black tip. Forages on ground for fruits, seeds and insects. Legs and feet are pink. Low direct flight on rapidly beating wings.

Range and Habitat
Key West Quail-Dove: Occurs very rarely in southern Florida; primary range includes the West Indies and east as far as Puerto Rico. Preferred habitats include semi-arid and humid woodlands, scrub, and forests.

The Key West Quail-Dove is evaluated as Least Concern at the current time. The prior rating for the Key West Quail-Dove was Lower Risk, which was downgraded to Least Concern in 2004. The range of the Key West Quail-Dove is estimated at more than 200,000 square kilometers. The population of this bird species has not been quantified at this time, but the Key West Quail-Dove is considered to be frequent within its native range. The Key West Quail-Dove is native to the United States as well as Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Bahamas.

INTERESTING FACTS
Named for where it was originally discovered, the Key West Quail-dove no longer breeds in Florida. Today it is only rarely found in the Keys and southernmost mainland Florida. A group of doves has many collective nouns, including a "bevy", "cote", "dole", "dule", and "flight" of doves.