Unknown Galliform

Looks like some sort of captive-bred dark morph. Hard to tell the scale from the photo, was it the size of a Ring-necked Pheasant? If so, that's what it is.

@birdsandbats No it was smaller than that - the size of a quail or small partridge.

@Coelacanth18 I would guess Japanese Quail then.

It isn't a Japanese quail, given the lack of white striping, but what it is, I don't know. The pattern doesn't fit Madagascar partridge either. I would guess in the direction of Bambuscicola/Arborophila or Odontophorus/Colinus, but I don't recognize it.

Crested bobwhite (Colinus cristatus) - the zoo has one individual per the USDA Inspection Report

@zoocentral Yeah I saw that too. It could be, but I'm not confident with that ID visually, and USDA reports also aren't 100% accurate when it comes to exact species.

At least the black patterns on the feathers do match crested bobwhite, even though the bird as a whole doesn't remind me of the ones I know...

Doesn’t look like a crested bobwhite to me, could it be some sort of hybrid or a morph of another bird?

@Coelacanth18 do you have any other photos? I reckon it's a Colinus of some kind, but I also think a different view of it would probably make it easier to identify (as in, it might just look weird because of the angle).

@Chlidonias Here is a slightly different angle:



Unfortunately the bird was digging in the dirt and had its back turned to me the entire time, so I don't have much else - maybe part of why identification has been tricky.

That being said, after doing a bit more research and consulting a couple other people, I'm now leaning towards this being a domestic red mutation of Northern Bobwhite (C. virginianus)... not confidently enough to add to ZTL or my life list, but it's the closest match I've found.