Madagascar Buttonquail
Turnix nigricollis
Tiny, complexly patterned quail-like bird. Female has rufous sides, gray underparts, and black facial markings. Male is duller and browner. Found on the ground in a wide variety of habitats, including grassland, scrub, spiny forest, and western deciduous forest. Somewhat shy, though more approachable than quail. The song is a quick, pulsing series of low “hwo” notes. Male is similar to female quail, but smaller, and has weaker and less direct flight when flushed.
Identification
The Madagascar buttonquail is a stocky bird with a small head and short legs and tail. Both sexes are cryptically coloured; the male has a light brown head with black and white streaking and mottling, and a greyish-brown back and wings with fine dark barring and pale-edged feathers, the barring on the outer scapulars being bolder. The tail is greyish-brown with fine barring. The chin and throat are whitish, the breast cinnamon-buff with dark barring and the belly whitish. The bill is bluish-grey, the irises white or pale grey and the legs greyish. The female is more brightly coloured. The top of the head is blackish and the mantle brownish-grey with some dark barring and cinnamon feather-edges, interspersed with some plain grey-brown feathers, giving a chequer-board effect. There is a white moustachial stripe below which the chin and upper throat form a black bib. The breast is cinnamon-pink and the belly grey with faint barring. The juvenile resembles the male but is somewhat darker and more heavily spotted.
Taxonomy
The Madagascar buttonquail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with grouse like birds in the genus Tetrao and coined the binomial name Tetrao nigricollis. Gmelin based his description on the earlier accounts by the French naturalists Mathurin Jacques Brisson and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon. The Madagascar buttonquail is now placed in the genus Turnix that was introduced in 1791 by French naturalist in Pierre Bonnaterre. The genus name is an abbreviation of the genus Coturnix. The specific epithet combines the Latin niger meaning "black" with Modern Latin collis meaning "-necked". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Turnix nigricollis
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
- Order
- Charadriiformes
- Family
- Turnicidae
- Genus
- Turnix
Range and habitat
This buttonquail is endemic to the island of Madagascar and is present over most of the island in suitable habitat. It is found in grassland, open woodland, clearings, glades, the edges of forests, sandy and bushy locations, weedy places and cultivated areas, especially where cassava is grown. It has been introduced to Mauritius, where it is now likely extinct and is present on Réunion and the Glorioso Islands, although it is unclear whether it is native there.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Southern Hill Myna
Gracula indica
Glossy black myna of southern India and Sri Lanka. Note white wing patches, bright orange bill, and yellow head wattles. Inhabits foothill forests, where it is most often encountered high up in the canopy in pairs or small flocks. Gives various croaks and screams, but is less vocally accomplished than the very similar Common Hill Myna, which does not overlap in range.
Black-headed Cuckooshrike
Lalage melanoptera
Male has dark slaty-gray head, neck, and upper breast; rest of the body is pale gray, with white on the belly. Wings darker than mantle. Female lacks the black hood, and has a whitish supercilium, brownish-gray upperparts with lightly barred back and rump, and buff-white underparts with wide brown bars. Juvenile is similar to female, but upperparts barred white. Immature similar to female. Song is a series of clear, loud whistles: “pee-pe-pe-pe-pe-twe-twee.” Some notes can be omitted, or additional notes added.
Red-cheeked Wattle-eye
Platysteira blissetti
Tiny black-and-white rainforest wattle-eye. Both sexes have a chestnut patch on the side of the face and blue bare skin around the eye, though this eye wattle is larger in males. Found in the understory of rainforest. Inconspicuous and difficult to observe; most readily detected by vocalizations. These are variable, but consist of piercing, high-pitched whistles which are repeated, sometimes for a long time. Somewhat similar to West African and Chestnut Wattle-eyes, but does not have a black chest band or extensive chestnut throat.
Start Your Bird Watching Journey
Identify a bird outdoors and keep the field guide close for your next observation.