8

Chestnut-backed Button-quails are small ground-dwelling birds. Their plumage is highly cryptic and dimorphic, i.e. males and females are slightly different. The head of both sexes heavily mottled dark-grey and white, with a dark longitudinal stripe on either side of the crown. The mantle and back are rufous-brown with white streaking, while the rump and uppertail are rufous-grey. The upperwings are rufous-brown with off-white spots. The flight feathers, which are hidden when the wings are folded, are dark-grey. Belly and undertail are white to off-white. The chest and flanks are olive-grey. Males have white spots on the olive-grey base, while the front of females is more streaked. The irises are pale-yellow. The short, thick bill of both sexes is light-grey, the legs and feet are yellow.

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 .

HERE

Chestnut-backed Button-quails are endemic to Australia. Their range encompasses the Kimberley, WA, and the Top End and the Tiwi Islands of the NT, from Derby, WA, in the West, to Groote Eylandt, NT, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, in the East.

Chestnut-backed Button-quails prefer dry savanna, dry scrub and dry grassland.

P. Brown reports spotting a Chestnut-backed Button-quail at Nitmiluk NP (Katherine Gorge), NT, in September 2020. Another was found, and audio recorded, at Nackeroo Lookout, Timber Creek, NT, in March 2021. All sighting and audio information presented on this page has been kindly contributed by P. Brown.