Little Button-quails are very small ground-dwelling birds.
Their plumage
is highly cryptic
and dimorphic, i.e.
males and
females are different.
The upperparts (nape of the neck, wings, rump, tail) of both
sexes are mainly brown, with some white stripes and dark-grey
patches.
Males
have a cap with the same colours as the rest of the upperparts,
a white throat, cream-coloured chest and white belly and vent.
Females have a brown cap, white throat, brown chest and white
belly and vent.
The bill of both sexes is dark-grey, the legs and feet are the
colour of skin.
Twitcher's tip
Compared to other species of
quail and
button-quail,
Little Button-quails have the lightest (pure white) feathers showing
by the sides of the uppertail when seen in flight from behind.
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 Little Button-quail is available
HERE
.
Little Button-quails are endemic to Australia.
Their range has very irregular boundaries;
for details see e.g. a field guide. Generally speaking, they can be
found anywhere on the Australian continent, except Cape York
peninsula, an area just to the South of the Gulf of Carpentaria,
the south-eastern coastal strip and most of the tropical coastal
areas. They are only rarely found in the most arid parts of the
continent.
Little Button-quails prefer dry
woodland and
grassland, but
also mallee scrub,
mostly in semi-arid country.
Sightings
Click here for sighting information
B. Hensen reports spotting a Little Button-quail at Oolambeyan NP,
NSW, in November 2012.
A single Little Button-quail was seen by us at
Eulah Creek in April 2012, although barely
alive and subsequently dead, when it was brought in by a neighbourhood
cat.
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 Little Button-quails was
observed in an area spanning from the Upper Hunter valley to the North-west
Slopes and Plains of NSW. Although not seen by us, their
calls were recorded
by us at the time 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.
More Little Button-quails were found at Eulah Creekin October and December 2021.
M. Fleming found a Little Button-quail in the
Pilliga scrub,
NSW, in October 2020.
Photos
ADULT
MALE
Lateral view of a male Little Button-quail
(photo courtesy of M. Fleming)
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, October 2020]
Near-dorsal view of a male Little Button-quail
(photo courtesy of M. Fleming)
[Pilliga scrub, NSW, October 2020]
Roost(?) on the ground with scats on opposite sides - this is probably where
a pair of Little Button-quails usually rest
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Near Thargomindah, QLD, June 2020]
There are many fundamental differences between
true quails (Coturnix) and
button-quails (Turnix) (see
above in the "Taxonomy, classification" section).
One other is that, while in most bird species males "advertise"
(i.e. call for a partner) and declare their territory, in the case
of button-quails this is done by the females.
More Little Button-quail 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.
Aboriginal name(s): "kooradong" (WA)
Description
Classification
Distribution
Sightings
Photos
Breeding
Nest
Eggs
Behaviour
Food
Call/s
Click here for a physical description
are welcome.
.