Black-breasted buttonquail

rdf:langString Black-breasted buttonquail

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Turnix

rdf:langString brown and black bird on forest floor

rdf:langString Adult male, Inskip Point

rdf:langString Blackbreastedbuttonquailmap.png

rdf:langString Black-breasted buttonquail range

rdf:langString melanogaster

rdf:langString VU

rdf:langString IUCN3.1

rdf:langString Colcloughia melanogaster (Mathews, 1913)

rdf:langString Colcloughia melanogaster goweri (Mathews, 1916)

rdf:langString Hemipodius melanogaster (Gould, 1837)

rdf:langString The black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) is a rare buttonquail endemic to eastern Australia. Like other buttonquails, it is unrelated to the true quails. The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird 17–19 cm (6.7–7.5 in) 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 usually found in rainforest, and forages on the ground for invertebrates in large areas of thick leaf litter. Most of its original habitat has been cleared and the remaining populations are fragmented. The species is rated as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Endangered species, and is listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A three-year conservation project has been under way since 2021.