It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Their face and throat is pale gray, the neck and breast brownish with a purple tint, and the eye brown.

G. v. albiventer is found in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and through northeastern Colombia to eastern Venezuela.

It inhabits the undergrowth and understory of tropical evergreen forest, both primary and secondary, and cacao plantations as well.

The violaceous quail-dove's advertising call is "a repeated, single, rather high-pitched cooing note".