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Gary,
Your observation of chameleon-like button quail
movements tallies precisely with a conversation I had with Dion Hobcroft a few
days ago regarding an encounter he had with Chestnut-backed Button-quails in the
Northern Territory. Chameleons use the same technique as disruptive camouflage
when disturbed; it's one of the reasons why button-quail are usually so
difficult to spot on the ground prior to flushing. I disagree with your
statement "they didn't realise I was there" - they would have been more than
aware (let's face it, you would have been hard to miss from a bird's point of
view!) and their cryptic behaviour is a manifestation of that
awareness.
Best
Andrew
On 20/1/07 I was birding the area behind the telegraph station and in
getting a good luck at female brown songlark I came up slowly to base of acacia
bush. Fortunately there were a pair of little button quail who didn't
realise that I was there and I was able to observe them at close range
feeding. The female had beautiful pink blush and a black line near
her ear. What was intriguing though was the way of walking of the
quail. They rocked forward in a manner as if there feet were glued to the
ground and after a number of times of this they would then take a step. The
same would occur when they were reaching out to feed on some vegetation-the head
would rock towards it in the glued feet manner before finally taking a piece of
vegetaiton in the beak. I stood motionless and the quails constantly checked out
both sides of the bush, seemingly for danger.
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