canberrabirds

Pained Button-Quail.

To: 'Philip Veerman' <>, 'David Rees' <>, "" <>
Subject: Pained Button-Quail.
From: Don Fletcher <>
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2018 05:39:30 +0000

Nah

PAINed Button Quail presumably deliberate due to all the threats it faces, not to mention that very painful looking movement it has to do for the oom sound

 

 

Don Fletcher

0428 48 9990

 

From: Philip Veerman <>
Sent: Wednesday, 31 October 2018 4:37 PM
To: 'David Rees' <>;
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Pained Button-Quail.

 

And I only just noticed Pained Button-Quail, but this is a Painted Button-quail (2 corrections).

 

From: David Rees
Sent: Wednesday, 31 October, 2018 4:29 PM
To: Philip Veerman; <>
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Pained Button-Quail.

 

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

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the Canberra Ornithologists Group mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the list contact David McDonald, list manager, phone (02) 6231 8904 or email . If you can not contact David McDonald e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU