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Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (Cinclosoma castaneothorax) Size: 18-24 cm

Australia: Family Group 20 Family Group 20 Table Eastern Whipbird Chirruping Wedgebill Chiming Wedgebill Spotted Quail-thrush Cinnamon Quail-thrush Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush Varied Sittella Crested Bellbird Eastern (Crested) Shrike-tit Northern (Crested) Shrike-tit Grey Whistler Olive Whistler Golden Whistler Western Whistler Mangrove Golden Whistler White-breasted Whistler Rufous Whistler Gilbert's Whistler Rufous Shrike-thrush Arafura Shrike-thrush (Little Shrike-thrush) Bower's Shrike-thrush Sandstone Shrike-thrush Grey Shrike-thrush Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes are secretive thrush-sized bushland birds. Their highly cryptic plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Both sexes have a white belly, vent and undertail coverts. Also the brownish-grey cap, buff supercilia, dark-grey ear coverts pale-grey nape of the neck and brownish-grey back, rump and uppertail are similar. The differences lie in the front, flanks and wing coverts. Male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes have a black stripe down the otherwise white front from chin to throat and a separate horizontal black breast band that connects to black streaks running down the flanks. Chest and flanks are otherwise chestnut-coloured. They have prominent black and white wing bars. Females have an off-white throat bordered by broad buff moustachial stripes above a grey-olive chest that connects to the pale-grey neck. Their wing bars are much more subdued, with only a few white spots on otherwise pale-cinnamon background. The irises of both sexes are dark-brown. The slightly down-curved bill is black; the legs and feet are also black. The upperparts of juveniles female Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes, but they have streaked and mottled cinnamon-coloured chest and flanks.

Taxonomy, classification See Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range 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 Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush is available HERE . NB: Reports on ebird of birds submitted by birdwatchers from the Australian Outback tend to be clustered along roads and public areas such as camp grounds; in such cases their distribution is not a good representation of the overall distribution of the species. Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes are endemic to Australia. Their range is restricted to central western and south-western QLD (skirting the north-eastern corner of SA, without reaching the border), and north-western NSW, eastward of Tibooburra, NSW. Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes are found exclusively in semi-arid habitats dominated by e.g. Mulga scrub.

Sightings Click here for sighting information We first found Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes at Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary, near Cunnamulla, QLD, in June 2019. M. Eaton reports finding Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes at Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, in June 2020.

Photos

ADULT

MALE

Frontal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-frontal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-frontal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush issuing its call (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-lateral view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-frontal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-lateral view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Lateral view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Lateral view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Lateral view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush issuing its call (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Near-dorsal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Dorsal view of a male Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

FEMALE

Lateral view of a female Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Kilcowera Station, between Thargomindah and Hungerford, QLD, June 2020]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial

Mobility: Sedentary

Elementary unit: Covey/family clan

Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrushes are communal, living in family clans. However, each clan as an entity/ensemble is territorial.

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

chbqthr_me_20200611_2.m4a	(SW QLD)	Territorial calls? (male)	© ME
chbqthr_me_20200611_3.m4a	(SW QLD)	Territorial calls? (male)	© ME
chbqthr_20190617_2.m4a	(SW QLD)	Territorial calls?	© MD
chbqthr_me_20200611_4.m4a	(SW QLD)	Alarm calls?	© ME
chbqthr_me_20200611_5.m4a	(SW QLD)	Alarm calls?	© ME
chbqthr_me_20200611_6.m4a	(SW QLD)	Various	© ME
chbqthr_20190619.m4a	(SW QLD)	? (male)	© MD

More Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.