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Venezuelan wood quail
	Illustration by John Gould & H. C. Richter
Conservation status
	; Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Odontophoridae
Genus:	Odontophorus
Species:	O. columbianus
Binomial name
	Odontophorus columbianus; Gould, 1850

The Venezuelan wood quail (Odontophorus columbianus) is a bird species in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in the Venezuelan Coastal Range.^[2]

Taxonomy and systematics

Some authors have suggested that the Venezuelan wood quail and gorgeted wood quail (Odontophorus strophium), Tacarcuna wood quail (O. dialeucos), black-fronted wood quail (O. atrifons), and black-breasted wood quail (O. lecuolaemus) are actually a single species, but this treatment has not been accepted by the major avian taxonomic systems. The species is monotypic.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Description

The Venezuelan wood quail is 25 to 30 cm (9.8 to 11.8 in) long. Males are estimated to weigh 343 g (12.1 oz) and females 336 g (11.9 oz). Adult males have a white throat and chin with black streaks. The rest of the plumage is reddish brown with large white marks on the breast, belly, and flanks. The female has paler brown underparts with less conspicuous white marks, and the juvenile is similar to the female.^[7]

Distribution and habitat

The Venezuelan wood quail is principally found in the central part of Venezuela's Coastal Range, from Carabobo east to northwestern Miranda. There are also two sight records from Táchira in the west near the Colombian border. It inhabits the floor of subtropical cloudforest at elevations between 800 and 2,400 m (2,600 and 7,900 ft).^[7]

Behavior

Feeding

The Venezuelan wood quail forages by scratching litter and bare soil to feed on seeds, fruits, insects, worms, and roots.^[7]

Breeding

The Venezuelan wood quail's breeding season begins in March and is thought to extend to the end of July. One nest has been found; it was at the base of palms, had a roof of vegetation, and contained six eggs.^[7]

Vocalization

Songs and calls

Listen to Venezuelan wood quail on xeno-canto

The Venezuelan wood quail's advertising call is "a rapidly repeated antiphonal duet" rendered as "churdole-chur-it, churdole-chur-it...".^[7]

Status

The IUCN has assessed the Venezuelan wood quail as Near Threatened "because it has a small extent of occurrence within which it is presumed to be declining owing to habitat loss and hunting pressure".^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b BirdLife International (2016). "Venezuelan Wood-quail Odontophorus columbianus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ ^a ^b Gill, F.; Donsker, D.; Rasmussen, P. (July 2021). "IOC World Bird List (v 11.2)". Retrieved July 14, 2021.
^ Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021
^ "Check-list of North and Middle American Birds". American Ornithological Society. June 29, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2021.
^ Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021
^ HBW and BirdLife International (2020) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip [.xls zipped 1 MB] retrieved May 27, 2021
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Carroll, J. P., G. M. Kirwan, and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Venezuelan Wood-Quail (Odontophorus columbianus), 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.venwoq1.01 retrieved September 13, 2021