Grey-fronted Dove (Leptotila rufaxilla) [XC59359]
by Daniel Lane from Ouanary, piste abattis, French Guiana (song)
Grey-fronted Dove (Leptotila rufaxilla) [XC676436]
by Luiz C. Silva from Area Protegida y Reserva Natural Aquicuana, Bolivia (song)
Subspecies
Brown-backed Dove (Leptotila battyi) has been widely treated as a separate species from either Grey-headed Dove (Leptotila plumbeiceps) or Grey-fronted Dove (Leptotila rufaxilla) on the basis of its distinct call and very slight plumage differences (Wetmore 1968, Ridgely and Gwynne 1989, Baptista et al. 1997, Dickinson 2003). Although Stiles and Skutch (1989) and Gibbs et al. (2001) suggest little or no difference between the voices of plumbeiceps and battyi, we provisionally accept battyi as a species pending further work determining the relationships of these taxa, rufaxilla and pallida.
May form superspecies with Pallid Dove (Leptotila pallida) and Grey-headed Dove (Leptotila plumbeiceps), and possibly also with Brown-backed Dove (Leptotila battyi) and Grenada Dove (Leptotila wellsi), and all five have been considered conspecific. Also related to White-tipped Dove (Leptotila verreauxi).
The following 6 subspecies are recognised:
pallidipectus Chapman, 1915 - Eastern Colombia (south to R Guaviare) and probably western Venezuela.
dubusi Bonaparte, 1855 - South-eastern Colombia to central-southern Venezuela (base of Mt Duida) and south to eastern Ecuador and (probably this race) eastern Peru; limits of range in Brazil unknown.
rufaxilla (Richard & Bernard, 1792) - Lower Orinoco Valley in eastern Venezuela, the Guianas and northern Brazil, south to R Madeira and east to northern Maranhío.
hellmayri Chapman, 1915 - North-eastern Venezuela (Paria Peninsula) and Trinidad.
bahiae von Berlepsch, 1885 - Central Brazil, from southern Mato Grosso to Bahia.
reichenbachii Pelzeln, 1870 - Central and southern Brazil (from Mato Grosso and Espírito Santo) south to Paraguay, north-eastern Argentina (Misiones) and Uruguay.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet