Western quail-thrush (''Cinclosoma marginatum'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family

Cinclosomatidae Cinclosomatidae is a family of passerine birds native to Australia and New Guinea. It has a complicated taxonomic history and different authors vary in which birds they include in the family. It includes the quail-thrushes and jewel-babblers. Ta ...

. It is found in arid inland habitat in south-central

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. It typically resides in dry woodland shrub with low

understory In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abo ...

on a stony ground. The climatic zones it is most commonly found in are

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

Taxonomy

The species was first described by

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

in 1883, the author distinguishing this species from the quail-thrush '' Cinclosoma castaneothorax'' of eastern Australia.

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

had previously noted the color variation of this western population and included these in an accompanying illustration. Systematic revisions in 2008 (Christidis & Boles) and the 1990s (Sibley & Monroe) recognised the taxon with subspecific status, ''Cinclosoma castaneothorax marginatum'', and reinstated by authorities as a species in 2016 (del Hoyo and Collar). The common names for this species include western quail-thrush and chestnut-breasted quail-thrush.

Description

A species of '' Cinclosoma'',

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

birds of Australia. It is smaller in size and slighter in build than ''

Cinclosoma castanotum The chestnut quail-thrush (''Cinclosoma castanotum'') is a native Australian bird of the family Cinclosomatidae. These scrub birds are endemic to Australia and found in all states - barring Tasmania. They are relatively uncommon and are isolated ...

'', which is found in other parts of Western Australia. Their breast and flanks are a cinnamon-rufous shade, a paler and different coloration from its counterparts. The crown and back are a solid chestnut color. The female's flanks are a duller orange shade, occasionally without the dark border. In males, the crown may be a dark grey shade. The throat and lower part of the breast are black, and the male displays a chestnut band between these. Instead, females have more of a grey center breast-band in between the black throat and lower breast. Female's coloring is duller compared to the males. Due to the less vibrant colors, there is less contrast throughout the female bird's body. The chin and throat of female western quail-thrushes have a pale buffish color. The feathers of the underparts of the tail are white with a brownish color towards the base, the black margins are most evident when the bird is in flight. There is also white coloring and spotting on the wings. The legs of both males and females vary from a grey to a grey-black shade. Young, juvenile western quail-thrushes have coloring like the females but have a more mottled appearance. Both female and male western quail-thrushes vary from 21 to 25 centimeters in size and on average weigh 65 grams. Due to the rare sighting of western quail-thrushes, their classification has been a debated topic. They were constantly difficult to spot in the field. The species was previously thought to be a subspecies to the

chestnut-breasted quail-thrush The chestnut-breasted quail-thrush (''Cinclosoma castaneothorax'') is a small endemic Australian bird which is predominantly found within the semi-arid deserts of New South Wales and Queensland. Distribution The chestnut-breasted quail-thrus ...

and the

cinnamon quail-thrush The cinnamon quail-thrush (''Cinclosoma cinnamomeum'') is cryptic arid-zone species that is endemic to Australia. This small to medium-sized species of bird is found in the arid and semi-arid regions of central Australia. Taxonomy This speci ...

, but now it has full species status.

Behavior

Western quail-thrushes'

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

contain a series of five to eleven whistles that increase in pace at the same pitch. Around the end of their song, notes may sound longer than others and are then followed by one or more short high-pitched notes. Western quail-thrushes are mainly winter breeders with their breeding season ranging from January to September. Consequently, they lay their eggs around March to September. They are not

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

and are common over most of their area. Western quail-thrushes do not breed at all during the

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. Because these quail-thrushes live in areas where evaporation occurs more than

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

, they will breed most times after it has rained. Western quail-thrushes build

nests 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 materi ...

that resemble a green bowl of grass, connected with leaves and twigs. The nests have a

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...

of around 15 cm across and 5 cm deep, typically placed under a shrub or

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

. Two

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

, rarely three, are laid, colored in white and blotched with lavender and chestnut-brown spots. The egg is incubated by both the male and female, but the female specifically

broods Broods is a New Zealand musical duo from Nelson, composed of Georgia Josiena Nott on lead vocals, with older brother and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Allan Joseph Nott on production and backing vocals. They released the single "Bridges", which w ...

and feeds the baby birds. Western quail-thrushes do not migrate and will most likely stay in their habitats.

Diet

Western quail-thrushes eat arthropods, which are

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

animals such as

spiders Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species di ...

and

insects Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...

. To find food, they forage on the ground and walk slowly, pecking with their bill on the ground and searching for seeds. As they forage and eat, western quail-thrushes hold their larger, previously found items under one foot as they peck their catch to dismember it.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7988206 western quail-thrush Birds of Western Australia Endemic birds of Australia western quail-thrush