Id??

[John and Kathy <>]

Hi Julie,

 

3 of us were in Mulligans this morning and I flushed a Little Button-quail (twice) from knee-high grass. You can look in a book to see what its size and description look like. A good diagnostic feature for a flying Little Button-quail is that its white flanks are quite noticeable when it flies.  You didn’t mention this feature, so yours may well have been something else, including as you say a Brown Quail, or even a Painted Button-quail as Con and Mark suggest.  Quail-ie things are quite difficult and a lot get away compared to how many you get a confident ID on. Check the habitat description in the book compared to where you were which might also help for next time.

 

Regards,

 

John.

 

 

From: Julie Clark [
Sent: Monday, 5 December 2016 7:24 PM
To: COG Chatline
Subject: [canberrabirds] Id??

 

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm not sure that I have enough information for anyone to be able to assist, but here goes anyway ...

 

At Mulligan's today I had a very brief view of a bird. I was watching something else and as I started to move a bird flew from the ground, no more than a few metres from my feet, hidden by the mid- height grass. It flew very low above the ground and landed on the ground again 50-75 m away, but was lost to my line of sight. All I observed was that the bird was about the size of a starling, appeared dark in colour from the rear, short tail, rapid wing movement and it look stocky in build. It didn't call as it flew.

 

I don't have much idea of what it was. I thought of brown quail, but have never seen one in flight, so don't know if that's a possibility. No photos ...

 

Any suggestions? I was in the middle of the reserve - not very close to any of the dams.

 

Cheers

Julie

--

Julie Clark