biology

Tawny-faced quail

Tawny-faced quail is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tawny-faced quail rather than just read about it. In short: The tawny-faced quail (Rhynchortyx cinctus) is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

Key takeaways

Tawny-faced quail belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tawny-faced quail to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tawny-faced quail from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The tawny-faced quail (Rhynchortyx cinctus) is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

Taxonomy and systematics The tawny-faced quail is the only member of genus Rhynchortyx. It has three subspecies, the nominate R. c. cinctus, R. c. pudibundus, and R. c. australis.

Description The tawny-faced quail is 17 to 20 cm (6.7 to 7.9 in) long. A male weighed 165 g (5.8 oz) and an unsexed individual 150 g (5.3 oz). The adult male of the nominate subspecies has a reddish face with a black streak through the eye. Its crown and hindneck are dark brown; the back and rump are gray to brown with black streaks. Its throat and upper breast are gray while the rest of the undersides are tawny buff with some white between the legs. The nominate adult female has a similar pattern but is generally browner. Its crown and back are dark brown and the rump mottled brown and chestnut. The face and upper breast are reddish brown and the eyeline, chin, and throat white. The lower breast and belly are pale with black barring. R. c. pudibundus is paler overall and R. c. australis darker.

Distribution and habitat The tawny-faced quail has a discontinuous range. The nominate subspecies is found in Costa Rica and Panama. R. c. pudibundus is found in northeastern Honduras and eastern Nicaragua. R. c. australis is found on the Pacific coasts of Colombia and far northern Ecuador. The species inhabits lowland tropical forest up to about 1,450 m (4,760 ft) of elevation. It is primarily terrestrial but roosts in trees and bushes near the ground.

Behavior

Feeding The tawny-faced quail forages by pecking. Its diet has been recorded to include seeds, worms, and insects.

Breeding The tawny-faced quail's breeding season includes March and April in Panama but has not been documented elsewhere. Little other information about its breeding phenology has been published.

Vocalization

The tawny-faced quail's song is "a series of pure monotonous whistles followed by a series of whistles at a lower and/or higher pitch" and has been likened to that those of tinamous or doves. The species is often vocal at dusk but also sings while roosting at night. Members of a covey keep in contact with soft peeping calls.

Status The IUCN has assessed the tawny-faced quail as being near threatened. It is rather rare in much of its range, and "[m]ajor threats possibly include deforestation and hunting."

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tawny-faced quail

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tawny-faced quail claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tawny-faced quail before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tawny-faced quail ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tawny-faced quail

In research: Tawny-faced quail appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tawny-faced quail in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tawny-faced quail is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1876, Birds of Costa Rica, Birds of El Chocó, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tawny-faced quail outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tawny-faced quail in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tawny-faced quail means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tawny-faced quail out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tawny-faced quail in simple terms?

The tawny-faced quail (Rhynchortyx cinctus) is a species of bird in the family Odontophoridae, the New World quail. It is found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.

Why does Tawny-faced quail matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tawny-faced quail?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tawny-faced quail.