Barred Buttonquail

The barred buttonquail, or common bustard-quail, is a small buttonquail, rufous-brown above and rusty and buff below, with the chin, throat and breast closely barred black. The female is larger and more richly coloured, with a black throat and centre of the breast. Its blue-grey bill and legs, yellowish-white eyes and, in flight, pale buff shoulder patches are distinctive. Buttonquails look like true quails but are not closely related and lack a hind toe. Its calls include a motorcycle-like drr-r-r-r and a loud hoon-hoon-hoon (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in pairs in most habitats except dense forest and desert, especially scrub jungle, light deciduous forest and farmland. Roles are reversed: the brighter female courts the male, fights other females for him with a loud drumming call and builds the nest, then leaves the three or four eggs for the male to incubate while she finds another mate. The nest is a grass-lined scrape in scrub or crops, often arched over with grass, and the chicks run as soon as they hatch. In India it is resident across a very large range; SoIB 2023 has too little data for a trend and rates it a Low conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).