Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The Painted Buttonquail is a widespread species across mainland ( southern, Eastern and Western ) Australia and parts of Tasmania.
The female in the video is larger and brighter than the male. Buttonquail are unusual in the bird world as the male takes on all parenting duties and rears the chicks. This species likes leafy under-story in dry and moist woodlands, also venturing into open grassland.
They will often go undetected due to their shy nature.
This species, in common with other Buttonquail feed by creating 'platelet's as they search for food. This is achieved by the bird spinning on alternate legs to expose food items such as small grubs and insects.This method can be seen in my video.
Whilst I have been blessed to observe this species many times, this encounter was somewhat more intimate than usual. While we were camped at the beautiful Narawntupu National Park in Tasmania, we could hear the Buttonquail calling around us. We were later treated to 2 different individuals calling early and late in the day and I was delighted to take the opportunity to film both the calling and feeding methods at close range.
Unfortunately, despite some efforts with the audio, the calls are not as clear as I would like them to be.
This description from Birdlife Australia.
The female is the larger and more colored of these small, plump, well-camouflaged ground-dwellers. The overall coloration is grey, with large white spots on the breast which fade to off-white around the legs and vent. The face has small black-edged white spots with a white eye-brow. The wings and back of the female are mostly chestnut, with white spots and black, white-edged bars on the wing. The male is similar but the chestnut color is replaced with buff.
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The Painted Buttonquail is a widespread species across mainland ( southern, Eastern and Western ) Australia and parts of Tasmania.
The female in the video is larger and brighter than the male. Buttonquail are unusual in the bird world as the male takes on all parenting duties and rears the chicks. This species likes leafy under-story in dry and moist woodlands, also venturing into open grassland.
They will often go undetected due to their shy nature.
This species, in common with other Buttonquail feed by creating 'platelet's as they search for food. This is achieved by the bird spinning on alternate legs to expose food items such as small grubs and insects.This method can be seen in my video.
Whilst I have been blessed to observe this species many times, this encounter was somewhat more intimate than usual. While we were camped at the beautiful Narawntupu National Park in Tasmania, we could hear the Buttonquail calling around us. We were later treated to 2 different individuals calling early and late in the day and I was delighted to take the opportunity to film both the calling and feeding methods at close range.
Unfortunately, despite some efforts with the audio, the calls are not as clear as I would like them to be.
This description from Birdlife Australia.
The female is the larger and more colored of these small, plump, well-camouflaged ground-dwellers. The overall coloration is grey, with large white spots on the breast which fade to off-white around the legs and vent. The face has small black-edged white spots with a white eye-brow. The wings and back of the female are mostly chestnut, with white spots and black, white-edged bars on the wing. The male is similar but the chestnut color is replaced with buff.
Please support my channel by subscribing and turning on notifications.
