The buffy-crowned wood partridge (''Dendrortyx leucophrys'') is a

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

species in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de 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 b ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

and

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of the buffy-crowned wood partridge was collected in Cobán, Guatemala, in June 1843 by Adolphe Delattre and given the binomial ''Ortyx leucophrys''. It was originally in the collection of the

13th Earl of Derby Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (21 April 1775 – 30 June 1851), KG, of Knowsley Hall in Lancashire (styled Lord Stanley from 1776 to 1832, known as Baron Stanley of Bickerstaffe from 1832-4), was a politician, peer, landowner, bui ...

who bequeathed it to the people of Liverpool in 1851. It is housed in the World Museum of the National Museums Liverpool with accession number D1496. The buffy-crowned wood partridge shares the genus ''Dendrortyx'' with two other species, all of which appear to be quite distinct from each other.Eitniear, J. C. (2020). Bearded Wood-Partridge (''Dendrortyx barbatus''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bewpar1.01 retrieved September 10, 2021 It has two subspecies, the nominate ''Dendrortyx leucophrys leucophrys'' and ''D. l. hypospodius''. The latter has sometimes been considered a separate species. The members of ''D. l. leucophrys'' in Honduras and Nicaragua were previously treated as another subspecies.Carroll, J. P., G. M. Kirwan, P. F. D. Boesman, and E. de Juana (2020). Buffy-crowned Wood-Partridge (''Dendrortyx leucophrys''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bcwpar1.01 retrieved September 10, 2021

Description

The buffy-crowned wood partridge is long. Males weigh an estimated and females an estimated . The nominate subspecies' forehead,

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 ...

, chin, and throat are white. It has a patch of bare red skin around the eye. The crown, its short crest, and the nape are chestnut and the back, wings, and tail are chesnut and gray. The belly is blue-gray with chestnut streaks. ''D. l. hypospodius'' is larger, darker, and grayer. The stripes on the breast are very dark and much narrower.

Distribution and habitat

The buffy-crowned wood partridge is found in three separate areas. The nominate subspecies is found from

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

in southern Mexico into western Guatemala and in Honduras, El Salvador, northwestern Nicaragua, and far eastern Guatemala. ''D. l. hypospodius'' is found in central Costa Rica. The species inhabits several humid to semi-humid

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

types including oak-pine, evergreen, and

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

. It can be found in

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

, partially logged areas, and coffee plantations.

Behavior

Feeding

The buffy-crowned wood partridge apparently forages by scratching through leaf litter. Its diet has not been well studied but includes seeds, buds, small fruits, and invertebrates. It moves about in family groups of four to six and in the non-breeding season in coveys of up to 12.

Breeding

The buffy-crowned wood partridge's nesting season appears to span from February to June. It generally nests on the ground, either building a domed structure or hollowing out a space in dense grasses. The clutch size is six to seven.

Vocalization

The buffy-crowned wood partridge's primary vocalization is "a rapid series of loud hoarse whistles 'kee-orr-KWA' or 'whew, Whit-cha, cha-waWHAT-cha'", usually preceded by a few hard to hear soft notes. It calls the most at dawn and into daylight and again at dusk.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the buffy-crowned wood partridge as being of Least Concern. "Deforestation may be a threat in some parts of tsrange, although the species appears able to adapt to considerable levels of habitat alteration".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1268985 buffy-crowned wood partridge Birds of Mexico Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica buffy-crowned wood partridge Taxonomy articles created by Polbot