The spot-bellied bobwhite (''Colinus leucopogon'') is a ground-dwelling

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 ...

in the

New World quail 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 a ...

family. It is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the crested bobwhite, ''Colinus cristatus''. The spot-bellied bobwhite is found in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

and Costa Rica in open

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

with bushes and trees and other open woodland.

Description

This species is 22–24 cm long and shows geographically variable male plumage amongst its six subspecies. All forms have a brown back with black spotting on the nape. The head has a white

supercilium The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...

, a dark line through the eye, a white or brown throat and a short crest. The lower belly is spotted but the rest of the underparts are pale, entirely spotted, or spotted with a rufous chest depending on the subspecies. The male weighs 140 g on average. The female is duller than the male with a buff supercilium and mottled throat; her average weight is 115 g. The song, most often given by males in spring and summer, is a rising, scratchy, ''bob-Wight!'' or ''bob-bob-White!''.

Taxonomy

There are six recognized subspecies. The subspecies in northwestern Honduras is known as ''Colinus leucopogon leylandi'' (Moore, 1859). The

holotype specimen A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was Species description, formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illus ...

of "''Ortyx leylandi''
MooreProc. Zool. Soc. London, 1859, p.62.
is held in the collections of

National Museums Liverpool National Museums Liverpool, formerly National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, comprises several museums and art galleries in and around Liverpool in Merseyside, England. All the museums and galleries in the group have free admission. The mu ...

World Museum World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the ...

, with accession number 1989.66.19. The specimen was collected from "Flores, on the road from

Omoa Omoa is a town and municipality with a population of 10,550 (2023 calculation) in the Department of Cortés in Honduras. Omoa is located on a small bay of the same name 18 km west of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea coast. Geography ...

to Comayagua", Honduras, and purchased for the museum from Mr. Leyland on 9 November 1857.

Behaviour

The spot-bellied bobwhite forms "coveys", groups of three to 15 birds during the non-breeding season. Both males and females incubate nests, with most nests predominantly incubated by females. About 10 white eggs are laid. The chicks are

precocial Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial ...

and will leave the nest few hours after hatching. This shy species feeds on seeds and insects, the latter especially during the breeding season. It is most active in the early morning and evening.

Subspecies

* ''C. l. incanus'' Friedmann 1944 (Guatemalan white-breasted bobwhite) * ''C. l. hypoleucus'' (Gould 1860) (El Salvador white-breasted bobwhite) * ''C. l. leucopogon'' (Lesson 1842) (white-throated bobwhite) * ''C. l. leylandi'' (Moore 1859) (Leyland's spot-bellied bobwhite) * ''C. l. sclateri'' (Bonaparte 1856) (Sclater's spot-bellied bobwhite) * ''C. l. dickeyi'' Conover 1932 (Dickey's spot-bellied bobwhite)

References

* Madge and McGowan, ''Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q1944830

spot-bellied bobwhite The spot-bellied bobwhite (''Colinus leucopogon'') is a ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. It is sometimes considered to be conspecific with the crested bobwhite, ''Colinus cristatus''. The spot-bellied bobwhite is found in ...

Birds of Costa Rica Birds of El Salvador Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of Nicaragua