Breeding

There is little information on the reproductive biology of Brown Tinamou. A nest is reported from Venezuela in April (Osgood and Conover 1922); breeding is reported in August and September in eastern Brazil (Frisch and Frisch 1964), with females in reproductive condition reported in November in southern Brazil (Belton 1984); and a juvenile is reported from southeastern Peru in October (Fjeldså and Krabbe 1990). The eggs are laid on the ground; the nest is only a hollow between the roots of a tree (Osgood and Conover 1922). The clutch size is 3-4, and the eggs are deep pink (Venezuela; Osgood and Conover 1922) or chocolate brown (eastern Brazil; Frisch and Frisch 1964). Egg dimensions are 50 x 35 mm (Frisch and Frisch 1964). A male was flushed from one nest (Osgood and Conover 1922), which is consistent with the general pattern in tinamous, which is that only the male incubates the eggs (Cabot 1992). Sick (1993), however, once observed a female Brown Tinamou with two grown young, and speculated that this represented a brood that had lost the male parent.