Well, I didn't realise what a rare observation the Red-Chested Button
Quail would be, so I'd better put some meat around the bones and be a
little bit more descriptive.
It was definitely a button quail, that much is certain. First
impressions on the markings I thought it was a little stubble quail;
generally brown, mottled over the back, markings up over the back of
the head and around the neck. The chest was plain, ie not barred like
a painted, so I eliminated that pretty early on. They were
'chek-chek'ing to each other, but I'm pretty sure that's common among
the BQ's. It was biggish for a BQ, I'd estimate up to 15-16cm. All
that was left was to see if it was a little BQ. The characteristic I
chose to split them, as I'll admit it was a pretty quick observation,
was the marked flanks, not chest, of both birds (it was a pair), and
the darker heads. So, it's not a Little, it's not a Painted.... must
be Red-Chested?
The habitat was dry sclerophyl down the hill, but up near the road it
is quite a sparse, grassy woodland. Clumps of dry grass, with some
bare dirt in between, with some spindly euco's in amongst it. I'm well
aware that this is not a fantastic set of observations to ID a fairly
rare bird, but really, what else could it be?
Opinions?
EB
2009/5/11 Evan Beaver <>:
> Birders,
>
> I haven't done much birding around my new stomping ground yet, and did
> my first serious birding in months on saturday, in the southern bits
> of Namadgi National Park. We followed Boboyan rd down through the
> park, and walked up to the Boboyan Trig point. Allegedely a 3 hour
> walk (return), we were standing on the summit in about 25 minutes,
> wondering what all the fuss was about. I had a french visitor
> (Balthazar) with me who wanted to see some wildlife. We saw some
> Eastern Greys pretty early on, and some bush birds, but it was pretty
> cold and blowy so it was fairly quiet. Some families of Superb FWs
> along the track, some King Parrots, Crimsons, Galahs, and a female
> robin I didn't get a very good look at. Not bad, but not the sort of
> diversity I was used to in the Blueys.
>
> So, I whinged once we were back in the car that you don't get the same
> sort of diversity as the Blue Mountains, and besides, it's knackered
> after the fires anyway. We stopped at the next lookout north of here
> (I can't remember the name, but it's pretty obvious if you want to go
> there) and caught the sunset. A Swamp/Black wallaby hopped past and
> Balthy was happy with that. I then heard a bit of scratching in the
> grass to the left, and wandered around to check it out, hoping for an
> echidna, maybe an early wombat. Saw nothing obvious for a minute or 2,
> then stumbled onto 2 Red-Chested Button Quail, which was a tick for
> me. Haha I said, happy to be eating my earlier words.
>
> So I'm sure there is some good birding around. I need to find some
> wetlands to look for Aussie Bittern and some of the southern ducks,
> then figure out where to go inland for Budgies and Cockatiel, which
> somewhat embarrasingly I still haven't seen in the wild. Good times
> ahead.
>
> EB
>
> --
> Evan Beaver
> Downer, ACT
> lat=-35.24, lon=149.15
> Or sometimes, Marrickville, Sydney
>
--
Evan Beaver
Downer, ACT
lat=-35.24, lon=149.15
Or sometimes, Marrickville, Sydney
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