The painted bush quail (''Perdicula erythrorhyncha'') is a species of

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 ...

found in the hill forests of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. They move in small coveys on hillsides and are distinguished by their red bills and legs. They have a liquid alarm call and small groups will run in single file along paths before taking flight when flushed.

Description

This quail is darkish brightly colored with a deep red bill and legs, eye-catching even in flight. The female has brick-red underpart and lacks the white throat and head stripe of the male. The male has a black face with a white supercilium and throat. These quail are typically found in a covey of 6 to 10 birds. They come out in open grassy patches or on forest roads and cart tracks to feed on seeds or grain (and small insects) and dust-bathe in the morning and evening. The covey quickly reunites by the constant call of the members to one another. A series of soft whistles are heard when members of a scattered covey regroup. The territorial call of male is a pleasant, oft-repeated triple note '. It is

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...

and weighs roughly .

Distribution and habitat

This species is mainly found in the hill forests of peninsular India. There are two apparently disjunct populations. Subspecies ''blewitti'' is found in the

Satpuras The Satpura Range is a range of hills in central India. The range rises in eastern Gujarat running east through the border of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and ends in Chhattisgarh. The range parallels the Vindhya Range to the north, and th ...

and extends into the northern

Eastern Ghats The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains along India's eastern coast. The Eastern Ghats pass through Odisha, Andhra Pradesh to Tamil Nadu in the south passing some parts of Karnataka as well as Telangana. They are eroded and cut ...

(East to Lammasinghi). This subspecies was described by Hume and named after F.R. Blewitt who sent him specimens from Raipur. The male has the frontal black band narrower and the white band around it being broader. The chestnut on the belly is paler. Overall, ''blewitti'' is smaller and paler than the nominate subspecies of the Western Ghats (south of

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

. Sykes described the nominate form based on specimens from the valley of "Karleh", 35 miles northwest of Pune), the Nilgiris and hills of southern India including the

Biligirirangans The Biligirirangana Hills or Biligirirangan Hills (as referred to in biology and geology) is a hill range situated in south-western Karnataka, at its border with Tamil Nadu (Erode District) in South India. The area is called Biligiri Ranganatha ...

and

Shevaroys The Selvarayan hills, with the anglicised name Shevaroy Hills, are a towering mountain range (1620 m) near the city of Salem, in Tamil Nadu state, southern India. It is one of the major hill stations in Tamil Nadu and in the Eastern Ghats. The lo ...

Behaviour and ecology

These quails are usually seen in small groups of 8 to 10. When flushed they scatter in different directions and then begin rally calling to reunite. Males are believed to be monogynous. They are pugnacious and trappers are known to use decoy males to capture others. The call of the breeding male is a ''kirkee..kirkee'' and other calls include soft whistles which rises and falls in pitch. The

nesting season The nesting season is the time of year during which birds and some other animals, particularly some reptiles, build nests, lay eggs in them, and in most cases bring up their young. It is usually in the spring. Bird conservation Bird conservati ...

varies locally, but is said to breed mainly in December to March.

Nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...

s are typically found in the ground at the root of a bush or grass clump, sometimes thinly lined with grass. The female lays 4 to 7 eggs at a time, which are incubated by the female alone for 16–18 days before hatching. Females are said to defend their young often by attacking dogs and even humans that intrude. Chicks are said to be able to fly at a very early age. A flagellate parasite ''Hypotrichomonas avium'' (

Parabasalia The parabasalids are a group of flagellated protists within the supergroup Excavata. Most of these eukaryotic organisms form a symbiotic relationship in animals. These include a variety of forms found in the intestines of termites and cockroaches ...

: Hypotrichomonadida) was described from a specimen found in the intestine of a painted bush quail.

References

External links

Photos and videos
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1261664

painted bush quail The painted bush quail (''Perdicula erythrorhyncha'') is a species of quail found in the hill forests of India. They move in small coveys on hillsides and are distinguished by their red bills and legs. They have a liquid alarm call and small grou ...

Birds of India Endemic birds of India