Black-breasted Buttonquail

The black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) is a rare buttonquail endemic to eastern Australia. As with other buttonquails, it is unrelated to the true quails. The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird 17–19 cm in length with predominantly marbled black, rufous, and pale brown plumage, marked prominently with white spots and stripes, and white eyes. Like other buttonquails, the female is larger and more boldly coloured than the male, with a distinctive black head and neck sprinkled with fine white markings. The usual sex roles are reversed, as the female mates with multiple male partners and leaves them to incubate the eggs. The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird with predominantly marbled black, rufous and pale brown plumage, marked prominently with white spots and stripes, white eyes, a grey bill and yellowish feet. The short tail has twelve rectrices and the wings are short with round tips. Like other buttonquails, the female is more distinctively coloured than the male. Its head, neck, and breast are black with a chestnut tinge on the nape and rear of its crown, and small white spots on its neck and face forming a moustache and eyebrow-like pattern. The white spots coalesce into bars on its breast, and its underparts are dark grey. The male has a whitish face and neck with black speckles and darker ear coverts, and a brown-grey crown and nape. Its breast has black and white bars and spots, with red-brown on its flanks and more grey with dark barring on the rest of its underparts. The juvenile resembles the adult male though has a blue-grey iris, duller brown-grey upperparts more heavily blotched with black on outer back and scapulars and less pale streaks. The female makes a low-pitched oom call; a sequence of 5–7 notes that last 1.5–2.0 seconds each – which can be repeated 14–21 (or less commonly 1–4) times. This advertising call cannot be heard more than 50 m away, and is uttered only after there has been sufficient rainfall of 100 mm within a few days. The female whistles quietly to its young. The male makes a range of high staccato and clucking alarm or rallying calls, including an ak ak call when separated from others in its covey. Juveniles have a range of chirping or piping calls to induce feeding or raise an alarm.