Spotted wood quail

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Spotted wood quail
Spotted Wood Quail, Costa Rica, January 2018 (27083973248).jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Odontophoridae
Genus: Odontophorus
Species:
O. guttatus
Binomial name
Odontophorus guttatus
(Gould, 1838)
Odontophorus guttatus map.svg

Spiza americana male 94 231051626 13e01e8125 o cropped flipped.png

Songs and calls

The spotted wood quail (Odontophorus guttatus) is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. It is a resident breeder in the mountains of Central America from southern Mexico to western Panama.

It occurs in highlands from 1000 m or higher up to the timberline, usually in dense understory thickets or bamboos. The nest, as with several other wood-quails remains undescribed, but the eggs are known to be creamy-white with brown spots.

The spotted wood quail is 25 cm long and weighs 300 g. It has an orange crest which is raised when it is excited. The upperparts are dark brown with black and rufous flecking. The underparts are normally olive brown, but there is a colour morph with rufous underparts. In both cases, the underparts are boldly spotted with white. The forehead is dark brown and the cheeks and throat are black streaked with white.

The sexes are similar, but the male averages slightly larger and the female has a duller crest. Immature birds have smaller, more buff-tinted spotting, and the throat is dusky rather than black. There are no subspecies.

The advertising call of the spotted wood quail, actually a duet, is a clear whistled coowit CAWwit coowit COO, and the contact calls are clear chirps and peeps.

Spotted wood quails are found in groups of 4 to 10; they forage on the ground, scratching at the soil for seeds, fallen fruit and insects. This is a shy and wary species, which will normally make its escape on foot, but if startled it will explode into a short fast flight into cover. The best chance of seeing this species is at dawn, when it may feed at the side of a road or on a forest track.

This species is reported as locally common in suitable habitat in Costa Rica and Panama, but has been adversely in much of its range by rampant deforestation.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quail</span> Index of animals with the same common name

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazonian plain xenops</span> Species of bird

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wedge-billed woodcreeper</span> Species of bird

The wedge-billed woodcreeper is a sub-oscine passerine bird in subfamily Dendrocolaptinae of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Mexico, Central America, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dot-winged antwren</span> Species of bird

The dot-winged antwren or velvety antwren is a passerine bird in subfamily Thamnophilinae of family Thamnophilidae, the "typical antbirds". It is found in Mexico, every Central American country except El Salvador, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, and Suriname.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stripe-faced wood quail</span> Species of bird

The stripe-faced wood quail is a species of New World quail. It is found in Bolivia and Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crested bobwhite</span> Species of bird

The crested bobwhite is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae. It is found in northern South America, extending through Panama to just reach Costa Rica. It also occurs on Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, and heavily degraded former forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spot-winged wood quail</span> Species of bird

The spot-winged wood quail is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae. It is found in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, and formerly in Uruguay. In Portuguese and Spanish the bird is called uru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tacarcuna wood quail</span> Species of bird

The Tacarcuna wood quail is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Colombia and Panama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufous-fronted wood quail</span> Species of bird

The rufous-fronted wood quail is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marbled wood quail</span> Species of bird

The marbled wood quail, also known as the Amazonian wood quail, is a species of bird in the New World quail family. It has an extensive distribution in Central America and the northern part of South America. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut wood quail</span> Species of bird

The chestnut wood quail is a bird species in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found only in Colombia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-breasted wood quail</span> Species of bird

The black-breasted wood quail is a bird species in the family Odontophoridae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-eared wood quail</span> Species of bird

The black-eared wood quail is a bird species in the order Galliformes. Until recently, the species was thought to be part of the family Phasianidae however DNA-DNA hybridization results determined that black-eared wood quail are only distantly related to Old World quail. As a result, black-eared wood quail have been placed in the family Odontophoridae and more specifically, in the category of wood quail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starred wood quail</span> Species of bird

The starred wood quail is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae. It is found in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests of Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spotted woodcreeper</span> Species of bird

The spotted woodcreeper is a species of bird in the subfamily Dendrocolaptinae of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Panama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-striped woodcreeper</span> Species of bird

The black-striped woodcreeper is a species of bird in the subfamily Dendrocolaptinae of the ovenbird family Furnariidae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Panama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinnamon woodpecker</span> Species of bird

The cinnamon woodpecker is a species of bird in subfamily Picinae of the woodpecker family Picidae. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Panama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spot-bellied bobwhite</span> Species of bird

The spot-bellied bobwhite is a ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. It is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the crested bobwhite, Colinus cristatus. As the latter species expands north into Costa Rica, it is likely that the two species will overlap in range in the future, but the Costa Rican subspecies of the spot-bellied is the least similar to the crested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wood quail</span> Genus of birds

The wood quails are birds in the genus Odontophorus of the New World quail family, which are residents in forests in the Americas. The core range of the genus is centered in the lowlands and foothills of the northern Andes of Colombia and the mountain ranges of Central America; however, some species occur elsewhere in tropical and subtropical South America.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Odontophorus guttatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T22679703A92825255. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22679703A92825255.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.