Turnicidae
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Buttonquail or hemipodes are members of a small family of
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s, Turnicidae, which resemble, but are unrelated to, the
quail Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy. Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New Wor ...
s of
Phasianidae The Phasianidae are a family (biology), family of heavy, ground-living birds, which includes pheasants, partridges, junglefowl, chickens, Turkey bird, turkeys, Old World quail, and peafowl. The family includes many of the most popular Game (hunti ...
. They inhabit warm
grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...
s in
Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
,
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, and
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. There are 18 species in two genera, with most species placed in the genus ''
Turnix Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre Abbé Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre (1752, Aveyron – 20 September 1804, Saint-Geniez-d'Olt) was a French zoology, zoologist who contributed sections on cetaceans, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects to ...
'' and a single species in the genus '' Ortyxelos''. Buttonquails are small, drab, running birds, which avoid flying. The female is the more richly colored of the sexes. While the quail-plover is thought to be monogamous, ''Turnix'' buttonquails are sequentially
polyandrous Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives" ...
; both sexes cooperate in building a nest in the earth, but normally only the male incubates the eggs and tends the young, while the female may go on to mate with other males.


Taxonomy

The genus ''Turnix'' was introduced in 1791 by French naturalist in Pierre Bonnaterre. The genus name is an abbreviation of the genus ''
Coturnix ''Coturnix'' is a genus of five extant species and five to eight known extinct species of Old World quail. These species are distributed throughout Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and formerly New Zealand. An extinct radiation of flightless, insula ...
''. The
type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
was subsequently designated as the
common buttonquail The common buttonquail (''Turnix sylvaticus''), also called Kurrichane buttonquail, small buttonquail, or Andalusian hemipode is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble but are unrelated to the true of quails. Description T ...
. The buttonquail family, Turnicidae, was introduced in 1840 by the English zoologist
George Robert Gray George Robert Gray FRS (8 July 1808 – 6 May 1872) was an English zoologist and author, and head of the ornithological section of the British Museum, now the Natural History Museum, in London for forty-one years. He was the younger brother o ...
. The buttonquails were traditionally placed in
Gruiformes The Gruiformes are an order (biology), order containing a considerable number of living and extinct bird family (biology), families, with a widespread geographical diversity. Gruiform means "crane-like". Traditionally, a number of wading and t ...
or
Galliformes Galliformes is an order of heavy-bodied ground-feeding birds that includes turkeys, chickens, quail, and other landfowl. Gallinaceous birds, as they are called, are important in their ecosystems as seed dispersers and predators, and are often ...
(the crane and pheasant orders). The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy elevated them to ordinal status as the Turniciformes and basal to other
Neoaves Neoaves is a clade that consists of all modern birds (Neornithes or Aves) with the exception of Paleognathae (ratites and kin) and Galloanserae (ducks, chickens and kin). Almost 95% of the roughly 10,000 known species of extant birds belong to ...
either because their accelerated rate of
molecular evolution Molecular evolution is the process of change in the sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations. The field of molecular evolution uses principles of evolutionary biology and population genetics ...
exceeded the limits of sensitivity of DNA-DNA hybridization or because the authors did not perform the appropriate pairwise comparisons or both. Morphological, DNA-DNA hybridization and
sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
data indicate that turnicids correctly belong to the shorebirds (
Charadriiformes Charadriiformes (, from ''Charadrius'', the type genus of family Charadriidae) is a diverse order of small to medium-large birds. It includes about 390 species and has members in all parts of the world. Most charadriiform birds live near water an ...
). They seem to be an ancient group among these, as indicated by the buttonquail-like
Early Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two ages or the lower of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded by the Priabonian Stage (part of the Eocene) and is followed by the Chatti ...
fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
'' Turnipax'' and the collected molecular data.


Description

The buttonquails are a group of small terrestrial birds. The smallest species is the
quail-plover The quail-plover, lark buttonquail or lark-plover (''Ortyxelos meiffrenii'') is a small ground-living bird in the buttonquail family Turnicidae that is found in the Sahel region of Africa and in a disjunct region of East Africa. It is the only sp ...
, the only species in the genus ''Ortyxelos'', which is in length and weighs only . The buttonquails in the genus ''Turnix'' range from in length and weigh between . They superficially resemble the true quails of the genus ''
Coturnix ''Coturnix'' is a genus of five extant species and five to eight known extinct species of Old World quail. These species are distributed throughout Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and formerly New Zealand. An extinct radiation of flightless, insula ...
'', but differ from them in lacking a hind toe and a
crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...
. The females of this family also possess a unique vocal organ created by an enlarged trachea and inflatable bulb in the esophagus, which they use to produce a booming call.


Breeding

Buttonquails are unusual in that females are serially
polyandrous Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives" ...
. The nest is a scape on the ground often near overhanging vegetation. The female lays a clutch of 4 or 5 eggs and then looks for a new mate. The male incubates the eggs which hatch synchronously after 12 to 15 days. The precocial chicks leave the nest soon after hatching and are cared for by the male. They can fly at two weeks of age and become independent at four weeks. For the smaller species sexual maturity is reached at three months.


Species

Family: Turnicidae * Genus: ''Ortyxelos'' **
Quail-plover The quail-plover, lark buttonquail or lark-plover (''Ortyxelos meiffrenii'') is a small ground-living bird in the buttonquail family Turnicidae that is found in the Sahel region of Africa and in a disjunct region of East Africa. It is the only sp ...
, ''Ortyxelos meiffrenii'' * Genus: ''
Turnix Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre Abbé Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre (1752, Aveyron – 20 September 1804, Saint-Geniez-d'Olt) was a French zoology, zoologist who contributed sections on cetaceans, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects to ...
'' **
Common buttonquail The common buttonquail (''Turnix sylvaticus''), also called Kurrichane buttonquail, small buttonquail, or Andalusian hemipode is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble but are unrelated to the true of quails. Description T ...
, ''Turnix sylvaticus'' *** Tawitawi small buttonquail, ''Turnix sylvaticus suluensis'' (
extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
: mid-20th century) *** Andalusian hemipode, ''Turnix sylvaticus sylvaticus'' (possibly
extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
: late 20th century?) ** Red-backed buttonquail, ''Turnix maculosus'' **
Fynbos buttonquail The Fynbos buttonquail (''Turnix hottentottus'') is a bird in the family Turnicidae formerly considered conspecific with the black-rumped buttonquail (''Turnix nanus''). There are no subspecies. Name Several authorities still refer to this spe ...
, ''Turnix hottentottus'' **
Black-rumped buttonquail The black-rumped buttonquail (''Turnix nanus'') is a small species of bird in the buttonquail family. Description This species has a brown back, rufous chest, and pale belly, brown irises and a black rump. As usual for buttonquails but not for ...
, ''Turnix nanus'' **
Yellow-legged buttonquail The yellow-legged buttonquail (''Turnix tanki'') is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails. This family is peculiar in that the females are larger and more colourful than the males and ...
, ''Turnix tanki'' **
Spotted buttonquail The spotted buttonquail (''Turnix ocellatus'') is a species of bird in the family Turnicidae. It is endemic to the northern Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republ ...
, ''Turnix ocellatus'' **
Barred buttonquail The barred buttonquail or common bustard-quail (''Turnix suscitator'') is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble, but are closely related to, the true quails. This species is resident from India across tropical Asia to south ...
, ''Turnix suscitator'' **
Madagascar buttonquail The Madagascar buttonquail (''Turnix nigricollis'') is a species of bird in the buttonquail family, Turnicidae, that is endemic to Madagascar and a few small islands nearby. It is a ground-dwelling species with an unusual breeding biology in whic ...
, ''Turnix nigricollis'' **
Black-breasted buttonquail The black-breasted buttonquail (''Turnix melanogaster'') is a rare buttonquail endemic to eastern Australia. As with other buttonquails, it is unrelated to the true quails. The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird in length ...
, ''Turnix melanogaster'' **
Chestnut-backed buttonquail The chestnut-backed buttonquail (''Turnix castanotus'') is a species of bird in the family Turnicidae. It is endemic to Australia. Taxonomy John Gould described the species in 1840, from a specimen collected by Benjamin Bynoe, ship's surgeon of ...
, ''Turnix castanotus'' ** Buff-breasted buttonquail, ''Turnix olivii'' **
Painted buttonquail The painted buttonquail (''Turnix varius'') is a species of buttonquail, the family Turnicidae, which resemble, but are unrelated to, the quails of Phasianidae. This species is resident in Australia where numbers are believed to be in decline. ...
, ''Turnix varius'' *** Abrolhos painted buttonquail, ''Turnix varius scintillans'' ** New Caledonian buttonquail, ''Turnix novaecaledoniae'' (
possibly extinct The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...
: early 20th century) ** Worcester's buttonquail, ''Turnix worcesteri'' ** Sumba buttonquail, ''Turnix everetti'' ** Red-chested buttonquail, ''Turnix pyrrhothorax'' **
Little buttonquail The little buttonquail (''Turnix velox'') is a species of buttonquail, part of a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails. This species is resident in Australia, where it is one of the more common buttonquails. ...
, ''Turnix velox''


Gallery

File:Barred buttonquail Nandihills 18July2006bngbirds.jpg,
Barred buttonquail The barred buttonquail or common bustard-quail (''Turnix suscitator'') is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble, but are closely related to, the true quails. This species is resident from India across tropical Asia to south ...
(''Turnix suscitator'') File:Turnix sylvatica.jpg,
Small buttonquail The common buttonquail (''Turnix sylvaticus''), also called Kurrichane buttonquail, small buttonquail, or Andalusian hemipode is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble but are unrelated to the true of quails. Description Th ...
(''Turnix sylvatica'') File:Paainted Buttonquail kobble08.JPG,
Painted buttonquail The painted buttonquail (''Turnix varius'') is a species of buttonquail, the family Turnicidae, which resemble, but are unrelated to, the quails of Phasianidae. This species is resident in Australia where numbers are believed to be in decline. ...
(''Turnix varia'') File:Turnix pyrrhothorax.jpg, Red-chested buttonquail (''Turnix pyrrhothorax'')


References

* Sibley, Charles Gald & Ahlquist, Jon Edward (1990): ''Phylogeny and classification of birds''. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.


External links


Buttonquail videos
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q205320 Extant Rupelian first appearances Charadriiformes Taxa named by George Robert Gray Bird families