Crested Bobwhite

Colinus cristatus

Least Concern · IUCN Red List

LCLeast ConcernSeedsForestScrapeMedium · 134 g

ID tip

Adult crested bobwhite are about 178 to 216 millimetres (7.0 to 8.5 in) long. The sexes are very similar in appearance. The long feathers on the fore-head and crown are pale buff or white, and the crest feathers may be dark. The back and sides of the neck are marbled in black and white and the throat is white or buff, sometimes spotted with black. The upper parts are mottled black, brown and grey. The underparts are pale, with buff, cinnamon and black markings. The eye is brown, the beak black and the legs bluish-grey. The female is slightly browner than the male.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Crested Bobwhite

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is October, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Crested Bobwhite

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 9 countries with regular records, and 2 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Recorded as a rare visitor in Costa Rica, El Salvador.

About the Crested Bobwhite

The crested bobwhite is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae. It is found in northern South America, extending through Panama to just reach Costa Rica. It also occurs on Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical seasonally wet or flooded lowland grassland, and heavily degraded former forest.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Side by side: Crested Bobwhite vs Northern Bobwhite · Crested Bobwhite vs Mountain Quail · Crested Bobwhite vs Spot-bellied Bobwhite · Crested Bobwhite vs Yucatan Bobwhite

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