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Hi Benj,
Well of course that is a possibility. If the Pipit
call was a normal pipit call and not mimicry (or copying) of a Stubble Quail's
call then all of the previous writing is irrelevant. I suppose I should have
been more circumspect in my first advice, to say that you can't build a case of
an interesting behaviour especially of mimicry, based on a single isolated
observation, especially if there is no obvious context. If their normal calls
are similar, I hardly think that why that is so, is of any relevance either,
they are not closely enough related to suggest anything from that. I suppose the
calls are within the same frequency and duration range, not sure whether that is
enough to call them similar. Another point to make is that at this time of year
there are many young birds for the first time, practicing their voices. So they
come out with lots of weird calls. I have a family (2 adults & 3 dy) of
Australian Ravens usually in the big tree in my yard. The young birds call a
lot, making gurgly, groaning and all sorts of odd noises, even though some of it
sounds like young kookaburras and pigeons, it isn't mimicry.
Philip
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