Marbled Wood-Quail / Gemarmerde tandkwartel, Tokoro

Marbled Wood-Quail (Odontophorus gujanensis)

Pictures (click on them to enlarge)
zanderij © Michiel van den Bergh	© Foek Chin Joe	© Pieter de Groot Boersma
© IPG rangers Sipaliwini ACT

Marbled Woodquail: A difficult to picture bird of the forest floor. Michiel van den Bergh saw one out of the cover on Zanderij Airport The last photo was made with a camera trap by the IPG rangers in July 2015 near Kwamalasamutu, the second one was made on the Brownsberg by Foek Chin Joe in 2009. This quail stays in the cover of dark humid forest and is well camouflaged. Only the orange around its eye stands out in the picture. It walks in groups through the forest searching for fruit and insects on the ground. It is common in the rainforest in Suriname and is often heard, but I don't have a recording yet.
Pieter de Groot Boersma made a still of a video of his, made on the Brownsberg in July 2011.

Distribution

Each small square indicates the observation of at least one (group) of these birds, the medium ones at least four observations on different days and the largest ones ten or more. The color of each square indicates: blue for coastal area, yellow for savanna and red for rainforest.
Not all places in Suriname have been equally often visited by birders, so the distribution of the squares gives an indication of the whereabouts of the birds, but also of the birders. Some places deep in the south have no reported bird observations, by experienced birders, within 60 kilometer.

Abundance in different areas
coastal zone (blue dots on the map) :
northern savannas (yellow dots (in the north)) :
rainforest under 400 m (red dots) :
rainforest above 400 m (red dots) :
Sipaliwini savanna (yellow dots (in the south)) :
A blank is shown if not convincingly reported in the zone. Data interpreted by Arie Spaans, Otte Ottema and Jan Hein Ribot.

Names
Scientific name:	Odontophorus gujanensis
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Odontophoridae, 2 in Suriname
Dutch:	Gemarmerde tandkwartel, Tokoro
English:	Marbled Wood-Quail
Sranan ('Surinamese'):
Guyana:
Papiamento:
Spanish (Venezuela):	Perdiz Colorada
Portugese (Brazil):	Uru
Arowak:
Carib:
French:	Tocro de Guyane

Observations through the year	Observations of breeding through the year

The 168 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.	The 1 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest. Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences. The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Observations through the year

Observations of breeding through the year

The 168 reported observations of this bird in Suriname, mainly for the last 50 years up to 2018, have been grouped by month. More birds on one day are counted as one observation. Of course, if the graph should depict the total number of birds seen, the differences between the months could be much more pronounced.

The 1 reported breeding observations of this bird in Suriname. Most observations are about nest with eggs, some about fledglings, or feeding at a nest or the building of a nest.

Of the about 5000 nests and eggs found for all species together, about 1/3 comes from the egg collection of Penard between 1896 and 1905. For some reason most collecting then was done in the first half of each year, so the shown distribution does not necessarily reflect the actual breeding preferences.
The main dry season in Suriname is reckoned to be from half August to the end of November, the main wet season from half April to half August, but the the timing of begin and end does vary from year to year. Around March a second dry season often occurs.

Last update: September 2024 by Jan Hein Ribot. Please mail your comments, photos to: jhribot ( residing at ) gmail (point!) com.
observations can be uploaded to suriname.observation.org or ebird.org ).