Description: A medium, terrestrial bird with a thin neck and a relatively small head. The body and tail are egg-shaped with the legs directly beneath them. They have a long, slightly de-curved beak with a pointed tip and four toes. They have three toes at the front that they walk on and a small-reduced toe that is raised up the tarsus. Coat: Overall colour is black, chest and belly grey and the ventral area is orange with faint black bands. The chin has tiny white speckles. The rest of the feathers are glossy black with some brown hints on the neck and breast, the wings are slightly rust tinted in the middle of the wing (the median and greater coverts) The legs are steely blue, the beak black and the irides are black brown.
Size: Total length 40-46cm. Females average slightly larger.
Weight:
Senses: They cannot fly well and quickly become exhausted, they prefer to run away from danger.
Habitat: Mainly subtropical forests. Likes humid areas with plenty of ferns and mosses, at about 1500-2100m.
Range: Males hold territories and females tend to wander freely within them. Females stay clear of other females so no area is overcrowded and both sexes are solitary by nature.
Distribution: Colombia, Peru.
Status: Insufficiently known. It is known that they are rare throughout their range and it is thought that they are threatened by habitat destruction.
Daily Rhythm: They are active through the day and roost at night alone on high tree branches. They choose thick branches as they rest on them with folded feet and do not hold onto the branch with their feet.
Voice: Both sexes call, but females have deep calls and use different tones and notes to males. The calls have been described as various melancholy instruments; such as flutes and whistles. Males use a soft, repeated call to keep their young close-by.
Enemies:
Prey:
Food and Feeding:
Grouping: Solitary, except during breeding. When males call a single female to them to mate with.
Breeding: Males call a single female to them, mate and after the female has laid her eggs she leaves to mate with another male.
Gestation:
Litter Size: Only one clutch has been recorded, this contained two eggs.
Young Description: The eggs are glossy and blue.
Nest: Nests are probably built on the ground by the male.
Young Care: The male probably incubates and rears the young alone.
Sexual Maturity:
Longevity:

Geographical Variations:
Tinamus osgoodi hershkovitzi
Distribution: South central Colombia.
Description: Coat: Wing coverts black, the under-tail coverts are darker chestnut rufous.

Tinamous osgoodi osgoodi
Distribution: South east Peru.

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