Spot-bellied Bobwhite

How to find it

Skip the forest and look in weedy, brushy fields; wood-quails are the forest birds and a different group. Early morning and late afternoon are best, when the birds call more and run around looking for food. In the Central Valley, pick a quiet stretch of coffee farm edge with few people and no dogs, and scan the trail or road edge far ahead. Playback of the whistled bob-white call works poorly, and a calling bird only shows if it sits in an exposed spot. Use your car as cover and let them come closer. On the road to the beach at Chomes, a guide found coveys easier in the evening than by day.

How to recognise it

This is a small, brown ground quail about 22 to 24 cm long. Look for these marks:

- a small crest

- a white eyebrow stripe

- a dark line through the eye

- on males, a black spotted patch on the nape

- a chest and upper belly that are pale brown, spotted, or reddish-spotted, depending on the subspecies

Males vary in plumage from region to region, so not every bird looks the same across its range. The Costa Rican subspecies is dickeyi. Its crest is short, which is the most obvious difference from the Crested Bobwhite of the south.

What it sounds like

Recording: Oliver Komar, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 5 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It is a very shy bird, most active at dawn and dusk. It eats seeds and adds insects during the breeding season. Like other chicken-like birds, coveys are good at sneaking: they have been seen creeping forward along coffee field edges and walking close by a parked car. When startled, a covey bunches up and runs fast, or takes short, noisy flights. Outside the breeding season these quail can form groups of up to 30 birds of both sexes.

Where it lives

This bobwhite lives in dry, open country, such as savanna with bushes and trees and other open woodland. In Costa Rica that means weedy, brushy fields, not forest. Its range runs from central Guatemala south to central Costa Rica, so Costa Rica holds the southern end of the species. Here the subspecies dickeyi occurs in the northwest and center of the country. In the Central Valley it turns up on roads through coffee farms and open weedy fields.

When to see it

In the Getsemaní study area in Heredia, the breeding season began after more than about 14 mm of rain fell in March. Hearing males sing there is a reliable sign that breeding has begun.

Similar birds

Crested Bobwhite also has spotted underparts, which can cause confusion, and some authorities treat the two as one species. The Costa Rican form of Spot-bellied is the least like Crested. Crested has a longer crest, and a Costa Rican account describes it with a rufous eyebrow and throat, pale grey face, and black neck with white spots. Forest chicken-like birds here are wood-quails, so habitat separates them.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican Spanish names include Codorniz Vientrimanchada and, in the official list, Codorniz de Monte, which means roughly 'quail of the scrub'. Elsewhere it is also called colín gorgiblanco or colín de cara blanca.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican list marks it as a resident species, and it is Least Concern for global conservation status.

Photography tips

Birds in this group stay in dense growth most of the day, then step onto roads at dawn and dusk to eat seeds and pick up small stones. Scan road edges far ahead and stay in your car, which works as a hide. The Zoo Ave area in Alajuela is also given as a photo location.