Breeding

Southern populations of Andean Tinamou, in Argentina, breed November-February (Reed 1919, Dinelli 1929, Liebermann 1936, Salvador and Narosky 1984), and breeding perhaps begins as early as September (Cabot 1992). There is less information about its breeding farther north. Subspecies oustaleti of the Andes of Peru is on eggs from December to May (Koepcke 1968), with several observations of immatures in June (Lüthis 2011); and Andean Tinamou reportedly breeds from December to March in the Andes of south central Peru (subspecies fulvescens), with immatures frequently encountered in April (Koepcke 1968).

The nest is a shallow depression on the ground, ca 15 cm wide and 7 cm deep, lined with straw, thin stems and a few feathers, and concealed under brush (Salvador and Narosky 1984).

The eggs are chocolate brown (Koepcke 1968, Salvador and Narosky 1984). Dimensions of eggs from Argentina (doeringi) are (mean) 44.38 ± 2.23 mm x 33.33 ± 1.07 mm (ranges 40.3-48.4 x 31.6-35.1 mm; n = 12) (Salvador and Narosky 1984). These are significantly smaller than the dimensions (55 x 36 mm) for a clutch of eggs from Medoza reported by Reed (1919). Reported clutch sizes range from 6-15 eggs (Reed 1919, Liebermann 1936, Koepcke 1968, Salvador and Narosky 1984); larger clutches perhaps contain eggs from more than one female (Cabot 1992). In captivity, only the male incubates (which is the common pattern in tinamous), and the incubation period is from 20-22 days (Smith 2001).