The Tacarcuna Wood Quail is a dark quail with conspicuous white on the face and chest. It spends much of its time on the ground and occurs in a very restricted area of the Darién highlands in southern Panama and adjacent Colombia.
Most of the body is dark brown to blackish, with white on the face, upper chest, and eyebrow, and warm buff on the nape. Females have brighter tawny underparts; juveniles are similar to females but have less white on the chin.
Tacarcuna Wood-quails live in the Serranía del Darién of eastern Panama. The male described in the original account has a dark crown, a white eyebrow and white bands across the front of the neck. These contrast with olive upperparts.
A male collected on 7 June 1963 at 1,450 m, about 6.5 km west of Cerro Malí’s summit, and a female taken with it formed the basis of the new species description. Their wings measured 129.5 and 131.0 mm, respectively, both about thirteen centimetres long.
The name dialeucos comes from Greek meaning marked with white. Wetmore compared the neck bands and back colour with South American wood-quails. The positions of white lines and dark neck areas distinguished birds living in separated mountain regions.
IUCN Red List (BirdLife listing) · Least Concern · Global
BirdLife lists Least Concern globally. The Colombian atlas model used only two records: one from Cerro Tacarcuna and one associated with a specimen collected in 1980. Retaining the cross-border mountain forest and confirming occupied sites can improve local conservation information.