mdahlem.net WWW

Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14	15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y

8

Red-backed Button-quail (Turnix maculosus) Alternate name(s): "Black-backed Button-quail", "Black-spotted Button-quail", "Orange-breasted Button-quail" Size: 12-14 cm (male), 14-16 cm (female) Weight: 23-39 g (male), 32-51 g (female)

Australia: Family Group 8 Family Group 8 Table Red-backed Button-quail Chestnut-backed Button-quail Little Button-quail Red-chested Button-quail Painted Button-quail Black-breasted Button-quail Ruddy Turnstone Latham's Snipe Swinhoe's Snipe Painted Snipe Asian Dowitcher Bar-tailed Godwit Black-tailed Godwit Whimbrel Little Curlew Eastern Curlew Eurasian Curlew Pectoral Sandpiper Sharp-tailed Sandpiper Curlew Sandpiper Ruff Red Knot Great Knot Wandering Tattler Grey-tailed Tattler Wood Sandpiper Terek Sandpiper Common Sandpiper Green Sandpiper Buff-breasted Sandpiper Common Greenshank Marsh Sandpiper Red-necked Stint Long-toed Stint Temminck's Stint Sanderling Broad-billed Sandpiper 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 Red-backed Button-quails are very small ground-dwelling birds. Their plumage is highly cryptic and dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Male Red-backed Buttonquails have a dark-grey back and rump, streaked with lighter grey and brown. Wing panels and flanks are creamy, with the inner wing coverts and the shoulders having dark spots in the centre of the creamy feathers. This gives the birds an appearance that looks all creamy with dark spots on the sides when the wings are folded. The outer wings and the flight feathers are grey, the colour of which morphs with that of the rump when the wings are folded, while the underwings and the belly are light-grey. The head of males is vermiculated yellowish-creamy and grey. Females are bigger and heavier than males. In addition, the face and throat is suffused with rufous and they have a prominent rufous semi-collar around the nape of the neck. Otherwise they are similar to males. Both sexes have a yellowish bill with a dark tip. The irises are light-grey, while the legs are yellow. Juveniles have an all-cryptic vermiculated plumage dominated by dark-grey on the back and grey with creamy white at the front. Immature males large have the colouring of adult males but with a subdued or totally absent rufous collar.

Taxonomy, classification See Red-backed 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). Genus Coturnix Turnix Common name True quails Button-quails Similar species Chicken-like Wader-like Toes 4 toes, one of which points backward 3 toes, all of which point forward Nesting habits Communal Non-communal Main incubator Female Male Incubation period ca. 21 days ca. 14 days No. of eggs 8-12 ≤ 4

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 Red-backed Button-quail is available HERE . Red-backed Button-quails are a species of south-eastern Asia, Oceania and northern and eastern Australia, with in total 14 extant races. In South-east Asian and Oceania their range extends from East Timor via Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines to the Solomon Islands. In Australia, Red-backed Button-quails are only found in coastal and near-coastal areas in the tropical North of the continent, from Broome, WA, via the Kimberley, WA, and the Top End of the NT to Cape York peninsula in northern QLD, and all the way down the East coast of QLD, and further southward as far as the NSW Central Coast. There are few sighting reports away from the coastal margin, in the Great Dividing Range, while in the tropical North sightings away from the coastline are more common. Red-backed Button-quails are found mostly in rough, tussocky grassland, but also woodland and cropping fields.

Sightings Click here for sighting information M. Eaton reports finding a Red-backed Button-quail at Moggill, QLD, in March 2021. All sighting and audio information presented on this page has been kindly contributed by M. Eaton.

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.

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.

rbbqual_me_20210307_NR.m4a

(SE QLD)

Contact calls

© ME

More Red-backed 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.

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

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Sun, 19 December 2021, 0:30 +00:00