The Spotted Wood Quail lives in forests from southeastern Mexico into Central America. It walks on the ground searching for seeds and insects.
Adults have an orange crest and dark brown upperparts flecked with black and rufous. The olive-brown underparts are spotted white; females have a duller crest. A rufous-underpart color form is also described.
When a male Spotted Wood-quail raises its crest, the feathers open like a fan. Orange near their bases contrasts sharply with black towards their tips. Posture and quiet calls accompany this display close to the leaf-covered forest floor.
On the evening of 17 January 1997, observers watched a pair scratching through leaf litter in Belize’s Chan Chich Reserve. The birds were about a metre apart when the male stood upright and slowly raised its crest three times. Its soft clucking was barely audible even nearby.
The presumed female then flattened her belly against the ground. The male approached and briefly mounted her, while both birds continued their soft calls. Afterwards they moved quietly into the undergrowth and deeper into the forest, completing a sequence from crest display to copulation and departure.
IUCN Red List (BirdLife listing) · Least Concern · Global
BirdLife lists Least Concern globally. A 1962 primary study described birds in tall rainforest and tall second growth in Belize. The 1997 display occurred beneath dense canopy with undergrowth and leaf litter. Retaining such woodland preserves places used locally for foraging and reproductive behaviour.