> impression of it in that time was of a plain grey-brown bird, the colour of
> old straw.
> I am assuming they were either Little or Red-chested. In my mind's eye it was
> neither as rufous coloured as most Littles nor as dark as most Red-chested as
> depicted in most Field Guides.
> Platelets were obvious under a number of bushes, being about 13-15 cm in
> diameter and often very close together, sometimes virtually contiguous. In
> some cases there were up to about 20 platelets under a single bush in an area
> of about 1.5 sq metres.
> (HANZAB makes no specific mention of platelets for either Little or
> Red-chested Button-quail - only in the accounts for Painted and
> Black-breasted are they mentioned.)
Hi Harvey
I recently submitted a paper to 'Emu' about Red-chested Button-quail in
northern Victoria - on (amongst other things) field ID. Your birds sound a bit
like RCBQ to me - old straw is an apt description - not so dark as some field
guides suggest either. And don't believe HANZAB every time - the RCBQ at
Gunbower Island in Victoria produced some of the greatest densities of
platelets I've ever seen, anywhere. Again, strongly reminiscent of what you've
described.
It's a bit hard to retro-ID birds for sure when the looks were all very
brief/partial, but I'd say RCBQ is most likely from what you've described.
Cheers -- Lawrie
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