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Little Button-quail
(Turnix velox)
: "Little Quail", "Butterfly Quail", "Dotterel Quail",
"Swift-flying Quail"
 Aboriginal name(s): "kooradong" (WA)
Size: 12-14 cm (male), 14-16 cm (female)
Weight: 28-44 g (male), 39-68 g (female)
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Similar species |
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Physical description |
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 Click here for a physical description
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.
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Twitcher's tip |
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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.
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Taxonomy, classification |
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See Little
Button-quail at Wikipedia  .
Click here for classification information
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).
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Coturnix
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Turnix
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Similar species |
Chicken-like |
Wader-like |
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Toes |
4 toes, one of which points backward |
3 toes, all of which point forward |
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Nesting habits |
Communal |
Non-communal |
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Main incubator |
Female |
Male |
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Incubation period |
ca. 21 days |
ca. 14 days |
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No. of eggs |
8-12 |
≤ 4 |
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Range, habitat, finding this species |
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Click here for information on habitat
and range
The overall distribution of this species can be assessed based
on sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to
ebird.org
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The global distribution of the Little Button-quail is available
HERE
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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.
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Sightings |
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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.
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Photos |
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ADULT |
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MALE |
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A male(?) Little Button-quail is caught in the beam of a
spotlight (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Oolambeyan NP, NSW, November 2012]
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Behaviour |
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Little Button-quails are mostly nocturnal birds.
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.
Breeding
Nest
Eggs
Food
Call/s
