Button-quails are cryptic ground-dwelling birds.
While superficially similar to true quails, they are unrelated.
Shy and elusive, they are usually encountered when they are disturbed and flushed from their cover.
They burst from almost underfoot with a startling whirr of wings, flying fast a metre or so above the ground before dropping and running for cover. The attached photo of a Painted Button-quail was taken on the Bruthen Walking Trails, a pleasant surprise on a morning walk.
Painted Button-quails are large woodland button-quails with a slender bill and a rufous-brown blaze on the shoulder. They have a grey breast and belly with a dense overlay of buff, drop-shaped spots and white spotting on the forehead. The adult Button-quail has grey-brown upperparts with fine black and rufous barring and white streaking.
The female is brighter than the male with a larger rufous shoulder patch, a blacker forehead with cleaner white spots and longer buff spots on the breast.
The Painted Button-quail has an unusual resonating booming call like the Common Bronzewing. The booming call is used in courtship and between pairs that have lost contact while foraging.
They are found in dry open forests and woodlands, especially eucalypt, with abundant leaf litter and an adequate understorey of grass, small shrubs and fallen timber.
Seen singly, in pairs or small groups, the Painted Button-quail will forage on the ground by spinning about on alternate legs to expose seeds and insects, making saucer-sized depressions known as platelets.
Noticing these platelets on the forest floor may be the first hint of their presence.
The female lays three-four eggs in a saucer-shaped domed nest of leaves, sticks and grasses built on the ground beneath a tuft of grass, small bush or at the base of a tree or rock.
She is Polyandrous and after laying her eggs she moves on, making her booming call to attract a new male to mate with.
She may do this three-four times in a breeding season.
The male incubates and feeds the young for seven-10 days after they hatch, closely attending the foraging chicks.
The chicks can fly10 days after leaving the nest.
Threats faced by the ground dwelling Painted Button-quail include clearance and grazing of woodland habitats and predation by introduced and feral predators.
While areas burnt by bushfires are often quickly re-colonised if there is dense regeneration of seeds, low intensity, controlled burns may not encourage this seed regeneration so may be detrimental to this foraging species.
