Blue-headed Quail-Dove

About the Blue-headed Quail-Dove

The blue-headed quail dove (Starnoenas cyanocephala), or blue-headed partridge-dove, is a species of bird in the pigeon and dove family Columbidae that is endemic to the island of Cuba. It is monotypic within the subfamily Starnoenadinae and genus Starnoenas.

In 1734 the English naturalist Eleazar Albin included a picture and a description of the blue-headed quail-dove in his A Natural History of Birds. His drawing was made from a live bird that had been brought to England from the East Indies. When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the blue-headed quail-dove with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Columba cyanocephala and cited Albin's work. The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek kuanos meaning "dark blue" and -kephalos meaning "-headed". It is now the only species placed in the genus Starnoenas that was introduced by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1838. The species is monotypic; no subspecies are accepted.

A taxonomic review of the species' taxonomic history, morphology, anatomy, behavior, distribution... Wikipedia →