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Stubble Quails are small, plump, chicken-like birds with predominantly dark grey-brown, highly cryptic plumage, with grey streaks and almost no visible tail. The belly is white. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are slightly different. Male Stubble Quails have a rufous throat and a black chest. Female Stubble Quails have a white throat and a boldly streaked breast. Otherwise the sexes are identical, with a white to off-white front with dark streaking and a brown-black back with white, spiny-looking streaks. The irises of both sexes are brown, the legs and feet are yellow; the bill is dark-grey.

Quail vs. Button-quail

Although the two genera of the true quails, Coturnix, and the button-quails, Turnix, are outwardly very similar, and therefore often listed together, there are significant differences between them (which is the reason why they are in different family groups here).

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Stubble Quail is available HERE .

Stubble Quails are endemic to Australia. They are mostly found in the south-western corner of WA and the South-East of the Australian continent (NSW and VIC, south-eastern QLD and also south-eastern SA), from where they can - in favourable conditions - disperse into the entire western half of WA and the entire eastern half of the continent, with the exception of Cape York peninsula. There are also Stubble Quails on some islands along Bass Strait, but not in Tasmania.

Stubble Quails have a preference for grassland, crops and low shrubland.

Where to look? How to find this species?

It can be quite hard to SEE Stubble Quails. The best areas to try are grassland, paddocks or, for those with access to farmland, commercial crops. Following the males' incessant calls one can try to locate them.

B. Hensen reports spotlighting a Stubble Quail at Oolambeyan NP, NSW, in October 2012.

We first heard Stubble Quail calling at Eulah Creek in March 2014, followed by another visit in April 2015. On both occasions the birds were not seen, but calls were recorded. They were next heard at the same location in April 2017. Substantial numbers of Stubble Quail are flushed in the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW annually during the harvest of grain and other commercial crops. During the severe drought of 2018-2019 the species retreated into the Great Dividing Range, to return to inland areas in NSW only after significant rainfall in early 2020, with subsequent lush grass growth. Our next sighting of the species was at Goran Lake in January 2024.

R. Plumtree reports spotting Stubble Quails at Ensay South, East Gippsland, VIC, in November 2014.

M. Eaton spotted Stubble Quails at Lake Samsonvale, QLD, in December 2019.

During the 2020/21 breeding season, after 3 years of severe drought and heat during the summers with subsequently a year of above average rainfall, an irruption of Stubble Quails was observed in an area spanning from the Upper Hunter valley to the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW. We spotted a number of them, e.g., at Eulah Creek, 20 km East of Narrabri, NSW. At the time, no aerial predators, such as e.g. Spotted Harriers, were found in the region.

M. Roderick reports finding large numbers of Stubble Quails along Cattle Lane, near Willow Tree, NSW, in February 2023. This is one known site of an irruption from 2020 onwards.