Designed by Paul Smith 2006. This website is copyrighted by law.
Material contained herewith may not be used without the prior written permission of FAUNA Paraguay.
Photographs on this web-site were taken by Paul Smith, Hemme Batjes, Regis Nossent,
Alberto Esquivel, Arne Lesterhuis, José Luis Cartes, Rebecca Zarza and Hugo del Castillo and are used with their permission.
ODONTOPHORIDAE - NEW WORLD QUAILS
One species of this exclusively New World family occurs in Paraguay. Historically this family has been treated as a subfamily of the Phasianidae but they are apparently not closely-related, having diverged according to DNA evidence up to 65 million years ago. Furthermore no hybrids between the two groups have ever been reported. The Paraguayan species Odontophorus capueira belongs to a group of forest-dwelling species known collectively as "Wood-Quails". They are sociable and terrestrial, occurring in family groups that maintain contact with soft calls. In appearances they are superficially similar to Old World Partridges. Wood-Quails are compact and dumpy with a short neck, wings and tail. The bill is short, stubby, slightly decurved and with serrated cutting edges. The legs are short and stout with an unfeathered tarsus and no spur. Three toes face forwards and a raised hallux faces backwards. Toes are long, an adaptation for digging for food. Members of this family prefer to run from safety and pass unnoticed, but if startled they erupt suddenly into an explosive and noisy flight, flock members scattering in all directions, before settling a short distance away. They have 10 primaries and 14 to 16 secondaries. A blind sac in the cloaca known as the Bursa Fabricius produces antibodies and decreases in size with age. Wood-Quails are monogamous, building a sheltered ground nest with a side entrance so that the eggs are not visible from above. Chicks are nidifugous and rapidly develop the power of flight. Juvenal primary-coverts are not moulted during the first post-juvenal moult.
REFERENCES
Campbell B & Lack E 1985 - A Dictionary of Birds - T & AD Poyser.
Carroll JP 1994 - Odontophoridae Handbook of the Birds of the World Volume 2 - Lynx Ediciones.
Johnsgard PA 1988 - The Quails, Partridges and Francolins of the World - Oxford.
Madge S & McGowan P 2002 - Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies - Helm.
