The brown quail (''Synoicus ypsilophorus''), also known as the swamp quail, silver quail and Tasmanian quail, is an

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

n true

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 the family

Phasianidae The Phasianidae are a family (biology), family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Turkey bird, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular Game (hunti ...

. It is a small, ground-dwelling bird and is native to mainland Australia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea and has been introduced to New Zealand and Fiji. Widespread and common throughout its large range, the brown quail is evaluated as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

" by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

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 ...

Taxonomy

Although previously classified in the genus ''

Coturnix ''Coturnix'' is a genus of five extant species and five to eight known extinct species of Old World quail. These species are distributed throughout Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and formerly New Zealand. An extinct radiation of flightless, insul ...

'', phylogenetic analyses have found it to form a monophyletic grouping with several other quail species, all of which have since been grouped 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 is thought to be 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 ...

to the

Snow Mountain quail The Snow Mountain quail (''Synoicus monorthonyx''), is a large, approximately 28 cm (11 in) long, dark brown quail of alpine grasslands. It was formerly considered the only member of the genus ''Anurophasis'', but phylogenetic analysis ...

(''S. monorthonyx''), which was previously classified in the genus ''

Anurophasis The Snow Mountain quail (''Synoicus monorthonyx''), is a large, approximately 28 cm (11 in) long, dark brown quail of alpine grasslands. It was formerly considered the only member of the genus ''Anurophasis'', but phylogenetic analysis ...

''.

Description

The brown quail is a plump, stocky bird which can grow up to a length of and weight of . The colour is quite variable over the bird's wide range. The male is reddish-brown speckled with black on the head and upper neck and mainly reddish-brown on back and wings. The underparts range from buff or rufous to brown, but always with fine black chevron-shaped barring. The tail is short, dark brown with yellowish barring. The female is similar but rather paler. There are small black spots on the shoulder of the female and the upperparts are barred with dark chevron-shaped markings. The voice consists of a variety of shrill calls with which the birds communicate as they move through dense vegetation. One call is a double whistle, the latter note ascending.

Distribution and habitat

The brown quail is distributed in agricultural areas, wet

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 ...

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

s, spinifex savannah, and freshwater

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s across much of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

and the Lesser Sunda Islands as well as in northern, eastern, south-eastern and south-western

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, though absent from arid regions. This species has been introduced to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. In Australia it is mostly a lowland species but in New Zealand it is found at altitudes up to and in New Guinea up to . It was introduced to New Zealand in the 1860s and 1870s and is now present in North Island and certain offshore islands. This introduction, and other quail introductions that failed to establish, may have played a part in the demise of the

New Zealand quail The New Zealand quail (''Coturnix novaezelandiae''), or ''koreke'' in Māori, is an extinct quail species endemic to New Zealand. The male and female were similar, except the female was lighter. The first scientist to describe it was Sir Joseph ...

, an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

species that became extinct shortly afterwards, possibly because of a lack of resistance to some new disease.

Biology

The brown quail is a ground-dwelling bird that prefers to hide or run rather than fly. It is found in small groups and feeds on grasses, seeds, shoots and small invertebrates. If the group is startled and take to the air, the birds scatter by flying in different directions, regrouping when the danger has passed. Brown quails form breeding pairs in the spring. There is an extended breeding season with clutches of half a dozen or more eggs being laid in a shallow scraped nest lined with grasses on the ground, often concealed in a grass tussock or shrubby bush. These are incubated by the female for the three-week incubation period. The newly hatched chicks are

precocial In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...

and are cared for by both parents for a while, with the male taking on the caring role after two weeks to allow the female to start on the next clutch of eggs.

Status

The brown quail has a very wide range and is common in much of that range. The

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

". Although the population has not been quantified, and may be declining slightly, it does not seem to be at such a rate as to warrant listing the species in a more threatened category.

In Aboriginal language and culture

The

Kunwinjku people The Kunwinjku (formerly written Gunwinggu) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer t ...

of western Arnhem Land call this bird djirndih, djiribbidj or merhmerh (all quails).

References

* Marchant, S.; & Higgins, P.J. (eds.). (1993). ''

Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds The ''Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds'', known as ''HANZAB'', is the pre-eminent scientific reference on birds in the region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and the surrounding ocean and subantarctic ...

''. Volume 2: ''Raptors to Lapwings''. Oxford University Press: Melbourne. .

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1259803

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 ...

Birds of Australia Birds of New Guinea Birds of the Lesser Sunda Islands

Taxa named by Louis Augustin Guillaume Bosc