The bird is distinguished by having a rust-colored back, facial mask and similarly colored wings.

In the first half of the 18th century the ruddy quail-dove was described and illustrated by several naturalists including John Ray in 1713,[2] Hans Sloane in 1725[3] and George Edwards in 1743.

[4] When in 1758 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition, he placed the ruddy quail-dove with all the other pigeons in the genus Columba.

Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Columba montana and cited the earlier authors.

[6] The species is now placed in the genus Geotrygon that was introduced in 1847 by the English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse.