The Snow Mountain quail (''Synoicus monorthonyx''), is a large, approximately 28 cm (11 in) long, dark brown
quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy.
Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New Wor ...
of
alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...
grassland
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s. It was formerly considered the only member of the
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''Anurophasis'', but phylogenetic analysis places it as the
sister species
In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree.
Definition
The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram:
Taxon A and t ...
to the
brown quail
The brown quail (''Synoicus ypsilophorus''), also known as the swamp quail, silver quail and Tasmanian quail, is an Australasian true quail of the family Phasianidae. It is a small, ground-dwelling bird and is native to mainland Australia, Tasman ...
(''S. ypsilophorus'') in the genus ''
Synoicus
''Synoicus'' is a genus of 4 species of Old World quail.
The species in the genus are distributed throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, tropical Asia, and Australasia. Two of the four species in the genus were originally classified in ''Excalfactoria'' ...
''.
It has a brown
plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
, a horn-coloured
bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
, yellow legs and a brown
iris
Iris most often refers to:
*Iris (anatomy), part of the eye
*Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess
* ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants
*Iris (color), an ambiguous color term
Iris or IRIS may also refer to:
Arts and media
Fictional enti ...
. The underparts of the female are whitish and more heavily black barred than in the male.
The Snow Mountain quail is confined to
Western New Guinea
Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...
's highest elevations, the
Snow
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
and
Star Mountains
The Star Mountains (Dutch (colonial)'': Sterrengebergte''; Indonesian'': Pegunungan Bintang'') are a mountain range in western Papua New Guinea and the eastern end of Highland Papua, Indonesia, stretching from the eastern end of Indonesia to the ...
. This little known bird is protected only by the remoteness of its habitat, a mostly inaccessible area at altitudes of .
[
The female usually lays up to three pale brown, dark-spotted eggs in a hollow nest under the edge of a ]grass tussock
Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perennial ...
. The diet consists mainly of seeds, flowers, leaves, and other vegetable matter.
Due to its limited range, parts of which are getting increasingly accessible, the Snow Mountain quail is evaluated as "near threatened
A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...
" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...
.[
]
References
External links
BirdLife Species Factsheet
Red Data Book
{{Taxonbar, from=Q283577
Quails
Synoicus
Birds of Western New Guinea
Endemic fauna of New Guinea
Endemic fauna of Indonesia
Birds described in 1910
Taxa named by Eduard Daniël van Oort
Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN