Yellow-legged Buttonquail Turnix tanki Scientific name definitions

15–18 cm (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); male 35–78 g, female 43–113 g (2 Dunning, J. B., Jr. (2008). CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses. Second edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, USA. Close ); female larger. Fairly large, greyish Turnix; rather pale underparts with deep buff breastband, unbarred underparts and bold black spotting, and sandy-buff upperwing-coverts with large black spots (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); bright yellow bill and legs; generally darker and greyer above than T. sylvaticus and slightly smaller T. suscitator, with considerable contrast between paler wing-coverts and darker flight feathers visible in flight (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). T. suscitator has black breast (and throat in female); T. sylvaticus is generally more barred and streaked (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Female has brighter bare parts (including irides) than male, with well-defined rufous collar on hindneck and less heavy and more open black markings on upperparts (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Non-breeding plumage of female is duller, lacking well-defined rufous collar (admixed grey), has buff coronal stripe and greyish mantle and scapulars, with irregular black markings and some buff fringes (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Juvenile is most similar to male, but smaller and overall duller, with more densely spotted wing-coverts, less distinct breast patch and faint greyish bars on lower throat and breast (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Race blanfordii slightly larger, and is darker above with extensive rufous fringing to feathers. Birds in Nicobars (sometimes recognized as race albiventris) said to be darker and richer overall, with broader and brighter rufous collar than nominate race (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ).

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Grassland, crops (especially rice stubble in some regions) (4 Brazil, M. (2009). Field Guide to the Birds of East Asia: Eastern China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Eastern Russia. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), secondary growth on abandoned cultivation, bamboo thickets with grassy undergrowth, and scrub; occurs from sea-level up to 2150 m (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), but principally below 1200 m (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ). Breeds in grass.

Apparently resident most areas. However, nomadic or migratory in dry regions of NW India and Pakistan, where is breeding visitor during rainy season, then resident from SW Gujarat to Nepal and probably Bihar and Orissa, but in Bhutan has been recorded solely in Feb–Jun (5 Spierenburg, P. (2005). Birds in Bhutan: Status and Distribution. Oriental Bird Club, Bedford, UK. Close ), while in peninsular India and Assam is apparently only a winter visitor (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ). Summer breeding migrant in NE of range, with birds wintering in SE of range. Considered vagrant N & W to L Baikal, Siberia (6 Mlíkovský, J. (2009). Waterbirds of Lake Baikal, eastern Siberia, Russia. Forktail 25:13–70. Close ). Migrates at night, when sometimes attracted to bright lights (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ). Like other Turnix flushes very reluctantly and flies only distance, before dropping back into cover and running on (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Grain, seeds, green shoots and invertebrates (ants, small beetles and grasshoppers); feeds mostly on seeds. Chicks fed mainly on minute insects, though seeds also eaten. Terrestrial forager, like congeners.

Female advertising call lasting c. 10–15 seconds, is low-pitched moaning hooting, which sometimes increases in strength and becomes almost human-like; also a more subdued but far-carrying “off-off-off”, whereas a “pook-pook” is suspected to be given only by male (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Season Mar–Nov (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ), occasionally other months and perhaps all year in SE Asia (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); usually in rainy season Jun–Oct. Solitary breeder; females sequentially polyandrous. Nest-site (probably selected by both sexes) (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ) is shallow depression on ground, lined with grass, sometimes with surrounding stems arched over to form rough dome with side entrance. Usually four greyish-white eggs with yellowish, pale mauve, brownish and black markings (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), size 25·5 mm × 20·8 mm (7 Robson, C. (2000). A Field Guide to the Birds of South-east Asia. New Holland, London, UK. Close ); incubation 12–16 days (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Incubation and chick-care by male alone. Chicks can self-feed at 5–6 days (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), fly at ten days, attain adult plumage at seven weeks.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Status and trends very poorly known. Widespread and apparently common over much of range, e.g. in Thailand, Malaysia (no breeding records but presumed to be resident) (8 Wells, D. R. (1999). The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. Volume 1. Non-passerines. Academic Press, London, UK. Close ) and Nepal (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); but irregular in Pakistan, locally common in India (3 Rasmussen, P. C., and J. C. Anderton (2005). Birds of South Asia: the Ripley Guide. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain. Close ), apparently scarce in Korean Peninsula (9 Duckworth, J. W. (2006). Records of some bird species hitherto rarely found in DPR Korea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 126(4):252–290. Close ), rare in Bhutan, where confined to E valleys (5 Spierenburg, P. (2005). Birds in Bhutan: Status and Distribution. Oriental Bird Club, Bedford, UK. Close ), and considered rare in Russian portion of range (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); in Indochina, only an uncommon migrant in E Tonkin and N Annam (1 Madge, S., and P. McGowan (2002). Pheasants, Partridges and Grouse, including Buttonquails, Sandgrouse and Allies. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Just six recent records (the first Apr 1987) in Bangladesh (10 Thompson, P. M., W. G. Harvey, D. L. Johnson, D. J. Millin, S. M. A. Rashid, D. A. Scott, C. Stanfield, and J. D. Woolner (1993). Recent notable bird records from Bangladesh. Forktail 9: 13–44. Close , 11 Thompson, P. M., S. U. Chowdhury, E. Ul Haque, M. M. H. Khan, and R. Halder (2014). Notable bird records from Bangladesh from July 2002 to July 2013. Forktail 30:50–65. Close ). Current status on Nicobar Is unclear, but was formerly common there (12 Sankaran, R. (1998). An annotated list of the endemic avifauna of the Nicobar Islands. Forktail 13:17–22. Close ). Preference for disturbed and cultivated areas suggests that its future is secure.