Black-breasted Buttonquail

Identification

The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird with predominantly marbled black, rufous and pale brown plumage, marked prominently with white spots and stripes, white eyes, a grey bill and yellowish feet. The short tail has twelve rectrices and the wings are short with round tips. The length ranges from 17 to 19 cm (6.5 to 7.5 in), with females tending to be larger and heavier, weighing 80–119 g (2.8–4.2 oz), compared to males, which weigh 50–87 g (1.8–3.1 oz). Like other buttonquails, the female is more distinctively coloured than the male. Its head, neck, and breast are black with a chestnut tinge on the nape and rear of its crown, and small white spots on its neck and face forming a moustache and eyebrow-like pattern. The white spots coalesce into bars on its breast, and its underparts are dark grey. The male has a whitish face and neck with black speckles and darker ear coverts, and a brown-grey crown and nape. Its breast has black and white bars and spots, with red-brown on its flanks and more grey with dark barring on the rest of its underparts. The juvenile resembles the adult male though has a blue-grey iris, duller brown-grey upperparts more heavily blotched with black on outer back and scapulars and less pale streaks.<p>The female makes a low-pitched oom call – a sequence of 5–7 notes that last 1.5–2.0 seconds each – which can be repeated 14–21 (or less commonly 1–4) times. This advertising call cannot be heard more than 50 m (160 ft) away, and is uttered only after there has been sufficient rainfall of 100 mm (4 in) within a few days. The female whistles quietly to its young. The male makes a range of high staccato and clucking alarm or rallying calls, including an ak ak call when separated from others in its covey. Juveniles have a range of chirping or piping calls to induce feeding or raise an alarm.<p>The black markings and large size of the female and the dark markings and whitish face of the male distinguish the species from the co-occurring painted buttonquail (Turnix varius). The regurgitated globular pellets of the black-breasted buttonquail have a distinctive hook at the end, in contrast to those of the painted buttonquail, which are more cylindrical and gently curved.

Taxonomy

The black-breasted buttonquail was originally described by ornithologist John Gould in 1837 as Hemipodius melanogaster, from specimens collected around Moreton Bay in Queensland. Its specific epithet is derived from the Ancient Greek terms melas "black" and gaster "belly". In 1840 English zoologist George Robert Gray established that the genus name Turnix, coined in 1790 by French naturalist Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre, had priority over Hemipodius, which had been published in 1815 by Coenraad Jacob Temminck. In his 1865 Handbook to the Birds of Australia, Gould used its current name Turnix melanogaster. Gregory Mathews placed it in its own genus Colcloughia in 1913, which was not followed by later authors. He also described a subspecies Colcloughia melanogaster goweri from Gowrie on the basis of less extensive black plumage, though this was later regarded as individual variation. Along with other buttonquails, the black-breasted buttonquail was traditionally placed in the order Gruiformes, but more recent molecular analysis shows it belongs to an early offshoot within the shorebirds (Charadriiformes).<p>"Black-breasted buttonquail" has been designated the official name by the International Ornithologists' Union (IOU). "Black-fronted buttonquail" is an alternative vernacular name. Gould called it "black-breasted hemipode" initially, and then "black-breasted turnix", corresponding with its scientific name. The buttonquail species were generally known as "quail" (hence "black-breasted quail" or "black-fronted quail") until the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union (RAOU) promoted the current usage of "buttonquail" in 1978, which was then universally adopted. The Butchulla people, the traditional owners of K'gari (Fraser Island), know the bird as the mur'rindum bird.

Scientific name

Turnix melanogaster

Authority

(Gould, 1837)

Order

Charadriiformes

Family

Turnicidae

Genus

Turnix

Range and habitat

The black-breasted buttonquail is found from Hervey Bay in central Queensland south to the northeastern corner of New South Wales, generally in areas receiving 770–1,200 mm (30–47 in) rainfall annually. There had been only ten reports from New South Wales in the decade leading up to 2009. Fieldwork across the Wide Bay–Burnett region from 2016 to 2018 found it in scattered locations in its suitable habitat from Teewah Beach to Inskip Point on the mainland and along the east coast of near K'Gari. It is found in Palmgrove National Park, which has been identified by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area for the species. The black-breasted buttonquail was once populous on Inskip Point, with the area a destination for birdwatchers wanting to see this species. Mike West, former president of Birds Queensland, blamed dingoes and wild dogs for wiping out the population.<p>The bird is rare and its habitat is fragmented. It is found in dry rainforest and nearby areas, as well as bottle tree (Brachychiton rupestris) scrub, lantana thickets, dune scrub, and mature hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) plantations with a closed canopy and developed undergrowth. Many canopy plants such as Acacia species produce abundant leaf litter, which the species forages in. No other buttonquail species lives in its type of habitat.

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

Migration pattern: Resident species.

Conservation

Population trend: declining.

Population trend

declining