A very dark, chicken-like bird found in lowland rainforest in northwestern Ecuador and western Colombia. Plumage is dark gray, but can appear almost black in the shady rainforest understory. Legs, eye, and base of bill are reddish. No other tinamou in range has uniformly dark plumage. Shy and hard to see as it walks quietly on the ground inside the rainforest. Heard far more often than seen; its song is a short, high-pitched, descending whistle repeated every 10-15 seconds.