Pained Button-Quail.

[David Rees <>]

Philip

Thank you for your comment, if you keep persisting you get lucky, gear pushed to its limit. If you sat still this bird was not too bad, moment you moved however it did not want to be about, I think from this and other experiences they are very sensitive to foot fall.

 Re the other thing I agree with you.  I suspect this is not a bird that thrives in suburbia, with the attendant disturbance, encroachment,  joggers, dog walkers, loose dogs etc etc. not to mention moggies, which in that location would have about in number for more than 50 years by now. Suspect it all got too much for them there for many reasons, aided possibly by something random happening, like the area was back-burned or had a fire which cleared the leaf litter they love and the birds had nowhere suitable to go to and come back from etc. etc......

David

On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 3:39 PM Philip Veerman <> wrote:

That is a great bit of bird filming. A hard one to even watch, better view than I have ever had, and that close. Watching that, I feel they are far less quail-like than the name would suggest.

 

I agree about the caution on Alan’s comment too. I suggest the “Undoubtedly feral cats are responsible for their absence” is overstating a conclusion. That may well be relevant. If it is the only factor, why were the birds there before some years ago. Cats have been around for a long time.

 

Philip

 

From: David Rees [
Sent: Wednesday, 31 October, 2018 3:16 PM
To: Alan Cowan
Cc: <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Pained Button-Quail.

 

Alan

 

They were not easy to find in a huge area of fairly remote potential habitat, that I and a friend searched.  Whatever is the cause of their apparent demise in a suburban location in central Canberra is a matter of conjecture, unless of course if the science has actually been done.  Unfortunately, small isolated populations of anything are always vulnerable to 'stochastic' events. 

 

David

 

On Wed, Oct 31, 2018 at 1:34 PM Alan Cowan <> wrote:

I'm glad David Rees saw a PBQ in northern NSW,

I have seen them many times in the woodland on Stirling Park Yarralumla but not for some years now. Undoubtedly feral cats are responsible for their absence.

Alan Cowan