The chestnut wood quail (''Odontophorus hyperythrus'') is a
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
species in the family
Odontophoridae
The New World quail are small birds, that despite their similar appearance and habits to the Old World quail, belong to a different family known as the Odontophoridae. In contrast, the Old World quail are in the Phasianidae family, sharing only ...
, the New World quail. It is found only in
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The chestnut wood quail has at various times been proposed or considered as
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...
with
rufous-fronted wood quail
The rufous-fronted wood quail (''Odontophorus erythrops'') is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador.
Taxonomy and systematics
The rufous-fronted wood quail has at various time ...
(''Odonophorus erythrops''),
dark-backed wood quail
The dark-backed wood quail (''Odontophorus melanonotus'') is a bird species in the family Odontophoridae, which is the New World quail. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador.
Taxonomy and systematics
The dark-backed wood quail is one of 15 speci ...
(''O. melanonotus''), and
rufous-breasted wood quail
The rufous-breasted wood quail (''Odontophorus speciosus'') is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae. It is found in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru primarily on the east side of the Andes between 800 and 2000m in elevation (higher in Peru).
...
(''O. speciosus'').
It is
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...
.
[
]
Description
The chestnut wood quail is long. Males weigh and females . Both sexes have grayish white feathers around the eye, with the female's more extensive. Adult males have a chestnut head and brown back, rump, and wings. The rump has fine black vermiculation
Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble worms, worm casts, or worm tracks in mud or wet sand. The word may be used in a number of contexts for ...
. The throat and undersides are rufous. The adult female's crown is dusky brown and its breast and belly are dark gray. The juvenile is similar to the adult female.[
]
Distribution and habitat
The chestnut wood quail is found mostly in the western and central Andes of Colombia and locally in the eastern Andes. In elevation it ranges from . It inhabits the interior and edges of subtropical montane forest
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...
, both primary and secondary. It is primarily terrestrial but has been seen roosting as high as above ground.[
]
Behavior
Feeding
The chestnut wood quail forages by scratching in leaf litter for roots, seeds, fallen berries, and probably also insects.[
]
Breeding
The chesnut wood quail appears to have two nesting seasons that correspond to the wettest part of the year, March to May and October to December. Nests are domed globes on the ground made of leaves and twigs with a short tunnel entrance. The clutch size is four or five and the female alone incubates the eggs. Family groups stay together for many months after hatching.[
]
Vocalization
The chestnut wood quail's advertising call is "a rollicking, rapidly repeated duet, 'orrit-kilyit...'". It also has an alarm call, "a low 'peetit, peetit...'".[
]
Status
The IUCN
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...
has assessed the chestnut wood quail as being of Least Concern. Until 2020 it had been rated Near Threatened. Though its population size is not known and is thought to be declining, those criteria are not critical enough to warrant a more perilous rating.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1269538
chestnut wood quail
Birds of the Colombian Andes
Endemic birds of Colombia
chestnut wood quail
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot