Rufous-breasted Wood-Quail Odontophorus speciosus Scientific name definitions

The Rufous-breasted Wood-Quail is found in lowland and foothill forests on the east side of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru to northern Bolivia. The species is principally recorded between 800 and 2000 m, but it locally ranges higher than this in Peru. Despite its wide range, the Rufous-breasted Wood-Quail appears to be rare and somewhat local in many areas, and has undoubtedly declined due to deforestation and hunting pressure Like all wood-quails, given good views, it is a stunningly beautiful and intricately plumaged bird. Three subspecies are recognised, of which the two southerly taxa have the entire lower body rufous, whereas the more northerly ranging O. s. soederstroemii has the rufous restricted to the breast, with the remainder of the underparts gray. Both subspecies and sexes possess an obvious pale superciliary stripe.

24–28 cm (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); estimated weight of male 332 g, of female 302 g. Breast and belly rufous-chestnut; crown dark brown, bordered by black on sides of head and neck, and on throat. Overall coloration brown and chestnut. Ear-coverts brown; white line extending from bill over eye down side of neck; bare eyering bluish black. Back and rump brown, with fine black vermiculations and white feather shafts; upperwing-coverts spotted either black or white, with white feather shafts. Bill black, legs bluish black. Female similar, but rufous-chestnut ends on upper breast, and is replaced by grey on lower breast and belly in nominate race. Juvenile has sides of head, chin and throat chestnut, with dusky margins; white stripe on head narrower; back and rump with reduced shaft stripes; longer scapulars tipped rufous-buff. Races separated by coloration, especially of crown and sides of head: race soederstroemii lacks whitish eyestripe of nominate, crown is usually darker, throat entirely black, white streaks on upperparts weaker or sometimes absent, and female has rufous head-sides and more reddish-brown upperparts; race loricatus has paler crown than nominate, black frontal band and virtually black supercilium (sometimes with fine white markings) (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Tropical and subtropical lowland forest, mainly at elevations between 800 m and 1750 m, but recorded to 2000 m in Ecuador and to 2600 m in Peru (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Found on forest floor.

Presumably sedentary.

No information available, but presumed to be much like other Odontophorus (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Advertising call  is similar to, but higher-pitched than, that of allopatric O. melanonotus and has more syllables than O. balliviani (3 Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker (2007). Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ), a rapidly repeated “keeroroko-keeroroko-keeroroko...” in duet, with one bird uttering “DUEE-do”, the other “CHEER-a-lo”; also a “wekwekwek” or similar given in alarm  , and reported to utter soft, low whistles (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), e.g. “ro-coco”, audible only at close range as introduction to advertising call (3 Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker (2007). Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ).

No specific information available, other than that the eggs are unmarked white and at least one clutch numbered five (4 Londoño, G. A. (2014). Parque Nacional del Manu, Cusco, Perú: Anidación de Aves en un Gradiente Altitudinal. Rapid Color Guide 514 versión 1. The Field Museum, Chicago, IL, USA. Close ).

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near Threatened. Very little information available; total population might number over 500,000 birds, and possibly stable. Reported to be uncommon in Peru, but fairly common in Podocarpus National Park, S Ecuador. Only recently discovered in southernmost Colombia (in SE Nariño) (2 Olaciregui, C. and Guzmán, F. (2011). First record of Rufous-breasted Wood-Quail Odontophorus speciosus for Colombia. Conserv. Colombiana 15: 31–33. Close , 5 Donegan, T., Quevedo, A., McMullan, M. and Salaman, P. (2011). Revision of the status of bird species occurring or reported in Colombia 27811. Conserv. Colombiana 15: 4–21. Close ). Possible threats include deforestation and perhaps hunting; however, probably more secure than most Odontophorus, due to remote distribution. Surveys and research required.