The female has a gray face and white throat and the breast and flanks are paler brown.

There is much variation among the other subspecies but in general those in mountain forests are darker than those in dryer lowlands.

[3] The singing quail is found in several separate areas in northern, western, and southern Mexico; the Yucatán Peninsula; northern Belize; much of Guatemala, and spottily in El Salvador and Honduras.

It scratches for food in leaf litter and soil, feeding on bulbs, seeds, and insects.

[3] The singing quail's breeding season appears to span from February to October.

[1] It appears to have a population exceeding 100,000 birds, is locally common, and is "apparently more capable of withstanding habitat destruction and fragmentation than other quails" of Middle America.