On a beautiful crisp morning in November, I was out birding in the mountains of southern

Waxaca, Mexico. The sun was shining between tall pine trees and the trail was lined with thick

agave plants. I enjoyed seeing bumblebee hummingbirds, brown-backed solitaire, and rufous-capped

brush finches that morning.

There were also some familiar birds I see regularly back home in Oregon in the U.S.

Birds like Stellars J., American Robin, and Townsend's Warbler.

But there was one bird in the forest that morning that I never saw.

I only heard its distinctive call resonating through the undergrowth. That's the sound of dentrothic's macroura, the long-tailed wood partridge.

Some ornithologists call it the long-tailed wood quail.

This is an elusive skulking bird that keeps to the shadows.

I really wish I had seen it that day, and not just hurt it,

because the long-tailed wood partridge is a gorgeous beast.

It has a stubby orange bill, a black crest,

and a face marked boldly with black and white

stripes.

The gray body is decorated with intricate white and rust-colored spots.

And, of course, this bird has a long tail.

Well, long for a quail anyway.

The second part of its scientific name, the specific epithet, is Macroura. Macroura.

This comes from ancient Greek, and it means long-tail. The long-tailed wood partridge is found

only in southern Mexico, so it's an endemic species there. It lives in forests high in the mountains, where it forages on the ground,

looking for seeds and small fruits and the occasional crunchy bug.

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