Painted Buttonquail, Melbourne

Hi Simon, There are quite a few records of Painted Button-quail from the Melbourne area, and they are seen fairly regularly along the Yarra (in season, i.e. ~ September to March in my experience) .  A couple of years ago I even found them breeding as far into the city as Kew.  Last year there was one briefly on my local patch in Viewbank, in remnant grassy woodland.  Further out, I used to see them quite often at Sugarloaf Dam, sometimes in quite grassy habitat as you describe, and find their platelets mainly under Exocarpos (Cherry Ballart) trees.  I haven't looked there recently.  They will use grassy habitats as long as there is suitable open forest close by.  Once I saw one on a suburban street in Blackburn (on the bitumen!), but that was probably a confused migrant (in March).  Cheers, Richard.

Sent by: 05/12/2004 08:42 PM

To:                 cc:                 Subject:        [BIRDING-AUS] Painted Buttonquail, Melbourne

Auscetnetters,

Whilst birding this morning in Lysterfield Park, just south of Birdsland I 
found a male Painted Buttonquail. It was initially calling and confusing me 
as the habitat is not great. It is quite grassy - the recent rainfall has 
promoted a lot of extra growth so there are no bare open areas with leaf 
litter. I was wondering whether I was overlooking something else obvious and 
just as I decided to move on flushed it virtually from my feet. It went to 
cover and I flushed it again, getting reasonable on the deck views.

Simon Mustoe.


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