The Magdalena tinamou is probably threatened from hunting and deforestation. The habitat in which it is found has been heavily modified for agriculture. Large areas of the Magdalena River Valley had been converted to pasture or cultivated as early as the mid-18th century, and most of the remaining wet forest was cleared during a government-sponsored colonisation and infrastructure development programme in the 1960s and 1970s. Flat alluvial portions of the valley are now used for intensive rice and cotton production, while undulating terrain has been converted to pastureland. This left only approximately 1-2% of old secondary and primary forest. However, recent research collected information by local inhabitants suggesting that this bird still survives; tinamous are notoriously cryptic and not easily found. A recording was made near the type locality by Colombian ornithologist Oswaldo Cortés in late 2008. In addition to confirming the continued existence of the Magdalena tinamou, it is hoped the recording (the first of the Magdalena tinamou) can be used to better establish its taxonomic status (species or subspecies) through comparisons with recordings of other red-legged tinamou subspecies. The absence of data beyond plumage (e.g. vocal analysis) was the main arguments presented by the SACC in 2006 for not accepting the Magdalena tinamou as a separate species.