Button Quails

Button Quails

Rinse button quails, together with the plains wanderer display one of the most complete reversals of normal sexual roles known in birds. Females are the more brightly colored sex, and are larger where the sexes differ in size; they defend territory, pugnaciously driving off other females, and initiating courtship of the males. Then, after the eggs have been laid, it is left to the male to incubate the clutch and tend the chicks. In some species, one female will mate with several males during a season.

Button quails inhabit warm, semi-arid regions of the Old World. They owe their alternative name(half-foot), to tithe the fact that the rear toe is missing. They are small, quail-like, essentially ground-dwelling birds, with a “crouching” posture. They are secretive and difficult to flush, even when flying only short distances.

The one exception is the Lark quail of Africa, which has a strong lark-like flight and flies some distance before alighting. Despite this general reluctance to fly in the face of disturbance, a few species are partially migratory, including the Yellow-legged buttonquail and the little button quail. In regions slacking any marked seasonal variation in climate, button quails will breed opportunistically all year round and, as in the Old-world quails. Young can attain sexual maturity at 4-6 months old.

On the Melanesian island, New Caledonia the now endangered keg has become restricted, through persecution and habitat loss, to probably under 13osq km (6osq mi) in the valleys of the central mountain range. Formerly many kegs were trapped for keeping in aviaries and for decorative plumes forth the millinery trade. This direct persecution has lessened (though some local people still catch and keep them as pets), but the Caledonian forests are still being destroyed as a consequence of nickel mining (the island industry); wild populations introduced mammals (pigs, cats and have spread to the remotest areas institute a threat to ground-nesting birds well as being (in the case of pigs) posy’ competitors for the tread.

The leg is superficially heron-like and adaptable to the forest floor, whose nearest relative is probably the Sun bitten. Both are plain-colored birchen seen at rest, but their broad wires„ when opened in the display, reveal striking pa -terns. The keg is stocky but long-leggy and stands relatively upright. It is lamplight less. The little we know of the kagu is derived from observations of captive birds. The New Caledonian breeding sealskin the wild is believed to be August January. but it is April November in captivity in, for example, Australia; the day-time activity of captive birds is at variance with a suggestion from visitors to New Caledonia that the species is most active in the evening and –night–certainly, the birds call a great death night. Most birds that lay single-es clutches (as does the leg) are long-lived, and captive magus has lived for 20 years in warm climates.

The Sun bittern, like the fin feet, inhabits silversides in tropical and subtropical forest-It is not easy to locate or watch and is particularly sociable, normally being encountered singly or in pairs along streams where the trees provide shade from the fui. the heat of the sun. Sun bitterns seek covet-within vegetation when disturbed and are easily overlooked by the would-be observe:

The Sun bittern is stout-bodied, with a heron-like long neck and long legs. The impression of somber, camouflage color-action in the feeding or skulking bird is belied in flight or display when the spread wings reveal conspicuous patches of chestnut on the primary wing feathers and bands of the same color across the tail.

Adult males arena more brightly colored than females or even juveniles, and it now seems clear that the spectacular frontal display of the Sun bittern is for threat or defense rather than courtship. In this startling transformation from a skulking to a large and threatening bird, the patches on the broad wings stand out as big, intimidating “eyes” (supposed also to look like a rising sun). In captivity, both parents share the tasks of incubation and chick care, and the chicks stay in the Nest for 3-4 weeks.

The two serums are placed, on the basis of similarities in musculature and the skull, in the same order (Gruiformes) as the cranes and rails. However, they bear a superficial resemblance to the Secretary bird (orderFalconiformes) of Africa and are its ecology-cal counterpart on the dry pampas and scrub-savanna of South America. They are ground dwellers, with a typical upright posture. Although their wings are developed, they seldom fly, preferring to run(with head lowered) when disturbed their long neck and legs are well adapted for living in long grass, in much the same way assign the Secretary bird and, among much closer relatives, the Old World bustards(1)152). Also like bustards, serums live in small groups, and their displays are said tube somewhat similar. One notable feature shared by the Secretary bird and the seriemas is that their diets include small snakes (serums are not, however, immune to snake poison). Often serums feed closet cattle and horses, presumably taking invertebrates disturbed by the grazing stock.

The Black-legged serviceman has a more restricted range, prefers open woodland and scrub areas, and is more arboreal (nesting above ground and roosting higher up) than the better-known Red-legged (or Crested)serviceman of the grasslands. The young of both are often taken alive for taming since they make efficient “watchdogs” against approaching predators when kept with domestic fowls. Though the newly hatched young are already well covered with down, they remain in the nest (under parental care) until well grown.

The Plains wanderer appears in the field to be a fairly typical button quail, with its broadly similar camouflage color patterning and habits. But, unlike button quails, it retains the hind toe, it lays pear-shaped (not oval) eggs, it tends to adopt a more upright (not crouching) posture, and the carotid arteries in the neck are paired.

The Plains wanderer was formerly widespread in eastern and southeastern Australia…but declined as agriculture became more intensive. it is now scarce or rare, its ranges fragmented, and it is found chiefly on unimproved grasslands and on fields left fall-low in alternate years; such conditions provide the mix of grass and weed seeds needed by the birds for food. There is no evidence. That they are migratory; the concentration of April-June records in the south merely reflects the quail shooting season there.

Eggs have been found in all months except March and April; probably there inbreeding year-round as the opportunity arises. As in the button quails, the more brightly colored female initiates courtship, and then leaves the male to incubate the clutch and raise the young. In captivity, however, females sometimes help with incubation. Once the parent-young bond has broken, the birds become well separated into ones and twos. They seldom fly, instead running offer crouching for concealment when alarmed and they have the habit of stand-in on tiptoe, neck outstretched, to gain abettor view through or over the vegetation.

With the progressive destruction of the Madagascan forests (only o percent of the island remains forested) a disproportionate number of the island’s species are now endangered, including all three of my sites. The White-breasted me site inhabits dry forest in western Madagascar; it is now extremely rare and localized, the last reported sighting being from Ankarafantsika (fortunately now a protected area) in 1971. The Brownmesite occurs in moist evergreen forests in the east and has always been considered rare. Bench’s mania inhabits dry brushwood land in southwestern Madagascar; it may be less rare than the others, but is nevertheless probably declining and is designated rare by the ICBP.

Many sites are thrush-sized running birds on the forest floor. They have functional wings but rudimentary collar bones, and can probe-ably fly weakly for short distances, despite seldom doing so. While they build nests above ground, these are invariably sited so that the birds can climb or scramble up totem. Breeding occurs from October to December. The mating system of the White-breasted and Brown-me sites seems to be “normal,” but it may be otherwise in Bench’s mania, in which the adult females the more brightly colored. Some parties of Bench’s mania comprising males anode dominant females have been reported, but in a more recent study females have been observed sharing parental duties, with two of them (paired to one male) laying inane nest.

All three species of fin feet are shy and retiring, not easily observed in their tropical riverside settings. It is thought that the rails are their nearest relatives, though, seen on the water, fin feet look more like grebes. Finfoots combine characters of grebes and coots (lobed feet) and cormorants (longneck, stiffened tails). When taking flight they patter across the water before becoming air-borne, but their normal reaction to disturb-acne is to run ashore into dense undergrowth or to swim away with their body submerged and only head and neck visible. At least one species, the masked fin foot, is impartially migratory. Reaching Malaya (probably from Thailand) in winter.

Sungrebe parents carry their young in flight as well as on the water. The adult has special folds of skin beneath each wing, forming cavities into which the chicks fit, muscular control probably helping to hold the chicks firmly against the parent’s body. The naked, helpless hatchling chicks are carried from the nest before even their eyeshade open. It is not yet known whether this remarkable feature applies also to the two Old World fin feet. The African finfoot knew also to lay a clutch of two eggs, and so may have adopted such a strategy. But the Masked fin foot is said to lay a clutch of 5-6 eggs, though this is based on old information. In the American Sun grebe. Both parents share the incubation. Though as yet only the male is confirmed as carrying young; in the African fin foot. females have been seen accompanying well-feathered juveniles.

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