Buffy-crowned Wood-Partridge

How to find it

Check quiet trails and little-used country roads at dawn or late afternoon. Scan the path ahead with binoculars and watch the edges of coffee plantations. Listen for the song, and light playback may bring birds into view. Drive back roads near Irazú just after the cold dawn, or park by thick second growth and listen for calling birds. Once you find one, keep scanning the hedge edge where it calls until it shows.

How to recognise it

This is a chicken-like bird about 33 cm long.

Look for these marks:

- a long tail arched like an upside-down V

- a short crest

- a buffy-white face and throat, with the rest of the head brown

- a white crown and throat, a dark bill and a red ring of bare skin around the eye

- slate-gray upper back and breast with chestnut streaks

- a dull gray-brown rump and belly, a dark brown tail and reddish legs

What it sounds like

Recording: Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It spends most of its time on the ground among thickets, and it is an expert skulker. It runs away quickly and rarely flies. Small groups forage in underbrush, second growth, and near forest clearings and coffee plantations. Pairs or small groups may be seen beside quiet trails and roads early and late in the day. It does not stay out in open fields in the middle of the day.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is a resident of the wetter, higher parts of the Central Valley. It also occurs on neighbouring slopes of the Central Volcanic and Talamanca ranges, around Dota, and on the Cerro de la Muerte massif. It is usually found between about 1000 and 2800 m above sea level, sometimes lower or higher. It lives in thinned forest and second growth, and also uses strips of forest along streams that run down from the mountains. It likes the trashier habitats of coffee plantations and scrub in the upper Central Valley more than forest.

When to see it

It appears to breed in the first half of the rainy season, roughly June to September.

Similar birds

The Black-breasted Wood-Quail shares the nickname chirrascuá, so the local name alone does not tell you which bird is meant. The white crown and throat and the red eye ring help you be sure.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it chirrascuá, chirrascuasa or perdiz montañera. The name chirrascuá is not unique to this bird, because the Black-breasted Wood-Quail carries it too.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), and the IUCN lists the species as Least Concern.

Photography tips

Patience at the hedge edge works best, since it skulks and runs rather than flies. Watch the paths early and late in the day, when pairs or small groups may step out beside quiet trails.