Spotted Wood-Quail

How to find it

Guides send birders to the Los Robles Trail in Los Quetzales National Park, where the oak forest has trees over 60 m tall and this quail is one of the birds to look for. Listen for the early morning duets, then scan the ground at the edge of dense understory and bamboo. Walk quietly, because these birds forage on the forest floor rather than in the trees. Gardens and feeding stations in the Savegre Valley are also listed as places it is possible, alongside hummingbirds and toucanets. Around San Gerardo de Dota, birds have been seen close to buildings.

How to recognise it

The orange crest is the best clue. It is raised when the bird is excited, bright in males and dull in females.

The other marks are easy to list:

Underparts boldly spotted with white.

Usually olive brown below, though a rufous colour morph also exists.

Cheeks and throat black, streaked with white.

The two colour phases differ in how saturated the underparts and crest look. Across its range the bird is about 25 cm long and weighs about 300 g, so think of a compact, round-bodied bird walking low in the tangle rather than anything slender.

What it sounds like

Recording: Dan MacNeal, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Groups of 4 to 10 form. Early in the morning, several groups sing and answer one another, so dawn is the time to listen.

Across its range, groups forage on the ground, scratching the soil for seeds, fallen fruit and insects. Breeding probably happens in the second half of the rainy season in Costa Rica.

Near San Gerardo de Dota, one birder watched a group foraging about 5 m from a cottage, and the birds paid little attention to people walking past.

Where it lives

This is a bird of high mountain forest. It favours dense, tangled understory, often with thick bamboo.

It lives from about 1000 m on the Pacific slope and 1500 m on the Caribbean slope, up to the natural treeline. In the rainy season it sometimes moves down to about 100 m on Caribbean slopes.

In Costa Rica it is locally common in the Central Volcanic range and the Talamanca range.

Similar birds

Within its range and elevation it overlaps mainly with the Black-eared Wood-Quail, which has no spots. It overlaps much less with the Black-breasted Wood-Quail, which is darker overall and has a whiter throat.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican lists give the name Codorniz Moteada, also called Codorniz Pintada. Other Spanish names are used elsewhere, such as Codorniz Bolonchaco in Mexico.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it as a resident (R), and BirdLife International rates it Least Concern.

Photography tips

This quail is normally very shy and rarely gives good views. The birds at the feeders in Copey de Dota have become more used to people, so that is a better place to photograph them. One photographer met his first on a trail above Savegre in February 2023 and found it elusive, hard to see and even harder to photograph.