[2][3] 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.

[4] 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.

It found that this species is unlike any other New World Columbidae and shares characteristics with many Australasian genera, the most similar being the Australian Geophaps and related terrestrial pigeons.

The study has also recommended that the English name be changed to "blue-headed partridge-dove" to distinguish it from New World quail-doves.

[9] This bird has a mainly cinnamon-brown body with a bright blue crown, black eye stripe, white facial stripe, and a black gorget narrowly bordered with white markings and blue mottling on the sides.