Text and photo by Steve Duncan, San Dimas, California

There are two species and four subspecies of Bamboo Partridges.  The cover bird is the nominate B. t. thoricica which is found in the hill forests of Zhejiang northwest to Sichuan thence south to Guandong and Guizhou – which, no doubt, is why it is called the Chinese Bamboo Partridge. It is called Chu-chi in the Chinese language. Some of these beautiful little birds are also found on Taiwan and some have been introduced into southern Japan and even into Maui, in the Hawaiian Islands. 

General Biology and Ecology

In China this species occurs mainly in hilly and flat terrain covered with shrubbery, bamboo forests, and grassy parks. They also sometimes approach weed patches near cultivated fields, and have been seen feeding with domestic chickens near human habitations. The birds have a mixed diet including seeds, shoots, leaves, nuts, grains, and insects. They also undertake short seasonal migrations, moving downward in winter and to hilltops in summer. In winter they often roost in clusters on tree branches, but in spring they begin to scatter.

 Reproductive Biology

Nesting in mainland China (where our cover bird is found as opposed to the other species which are found in India or Taiwan) generally takes place from April to July, but perhaps starts as early as March and carries over to September.

 The nest is placed in scrub, bamboo jungle, or grasslands, and the clutch is usually of four to five eggs, but ranges from three to seven. The incubation period is of 18-19 days, and is done only by the female.  

Males have spurs on their legs, females don’t. Otherwise sexes are identical. At 2-3 months of age, males begin to develop a bump on the leg where the spurs will be so they can be sexed fairly early.

 Social Behaviour

In the wild, the coveys (flocks) of this species range from two to twenty birds, with each flock keeping to a somewhat fixed home range, foraging area, and roosting site so they don’t overlap with nearby flocks. In spring the males are very aggressive, and protective of their territory.

 In the Aviary

Diet

For me, this species has done well on turkey or gamebird crumbles, seed mix (finch, parakeet, small hookbill, wild bird mix), and insects (mealworms, waxmoth larvae, etc.).

 Habits

Like chickens, these birds stay on the ground all day. They roost off the ground in a bush or up high at night. They are silent except for male’s call during breeding season, but even then they are not noisy or loud. I have never heard them crowing at night like Button Quail do. I have never observed any aggression toward other species of birds. Fairly shy in nature, they are always at the opposite end of the flight cage from where the observer is. It was very hard to get decent photos of them.

 Breeding

I keep one male and one female. I don’t know if they are monogamous or not. The males are territorial (evidenced by the presence of spurs) and they have to use them for something so I guess it’s  possible that more than one female could be kept with a male, but I don’t know for sure – never tried it.

 The eggs are speckled. My hen will lay 6-10 eggs in leaf litter at two-day intervals. Laying seems to start in late spring. She only lays for a couple of months. She does not sit at all, but she does seem to hide the eggs under the leaf litter as though she has some intention of caring for them. In order to get the eggs to hatch, I have always had to foster the eggs or incubate them. I would estimate that the incubation period (in an artificial incubator) is about 21-23 days, but I haven’t kept good records on that.

Babies do well on a chick starter mash with some small mealworms to get them pecking. Water for chicks should be supplied in a tube drinker or a shallow dish with marbles to prevent wetting or drowning the chicks.

Copyright © 2007 Avicultural Society of America. All rights reserved.
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