Common Buttonquail

Overview

The common buttonquail, also known as the Kurrichane buttonquail, is a small bird that resembles true quails but is not closely related to them. It belongs to a small family of birds known as buttonquails.

Identification

• Streaked sandy brown upperparts with buff underparts featuring black flank markings.
• Plain face and a small size of approximately 15 cm (5.9 in).
• Notoriously difficult to see; when flushed, it flies low over the ground and settles quickly.
• Female calls with a deep hoom-hoom-hoom, to which the male replies with kek-kek-kek.

Habitat

Resident in warm grasslands, scrub jungle, cornfields, and open herbage from southern Spain and Africa through India and tropical Asia to Indonesia. It avoids thick forests and hilly country.

Diet

Feeds on insects and seeds.

Did you know?

The nominate subspecies was declared extinct in Europe in 2021, marking it as the first bird species to have become extinct in Europe since the great auk in 1852.