The Abrolhos painted buttonquail (''Turnix varius scintillans'') is a subspecies of the

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. ...

endemic to the Houtman Abrolhos. It is common on

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, and also occurs on other islands of the Wallabi Group, namely East Wallabi, West Wallabi,

Seagull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

and Pigeon Islands.

Taxonomy

The first recorded sighting of the bird by Europeans was during the third voyage of HMS ''Beagle''. On 22 May 1840, the crew of the ship landed at North Island, which John Lort Stokes described thus: Five years later, the subspecies was formally published by John Gould.

Description

It lives amongst dunes and sand flats covered with '' Spinifex'',

saltbush Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to ''Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. ...

and

samphire Samphire is a name given to a number of succulent salt-tolerant plants (halophytes) that tend to be associated with water bodies. *Rock samphire, ''Crithmum maritimum'' is a coastal species with white flowers that grows in Ireland, the Unit ...

, and avoids areas of

limestone pavement A limestone pavement is a natural karst landform consisting of a flat, incised surface of exposed limestone that resembles an artificial pavement. The term is mainly used in the UK and Ireland, where many of these landforms have developed dist ...

. It obtains food such as

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s by scratching in the surface soil, but also will collect scraps it can find. It breeds from April to October. Its nest is a scrape in loose soil about ten centimetres wide and two centimetres deep, beneath vegetation. The species matures at one year and has a

longevity The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always d ...

of nine years.

Conservation status

In 2003 it was assessed as "fauna which is rare, or likely to become extinct" under the WA ''

Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 The ''Wildlife Conservation Act 1950'' is an act of the Western Australian Parliament that provides the statute relating to conservation and legal protection of flora and fauna. Text was copied from this source, which is available under Attrib ...

''. Islands where it breeds are considered to have a high conservation value.

Rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

s and cats have been introduced to the ecosystem which may pose a threat to the population. A 2018 study ranked it fifth in a list of Australian birds most likely to go extinct.PDF
/ref> the subspecies is listed as " vulnerable" under the federal EPBC Act (last updated 16 July 2000, due for reassessment 30 October 2022), and

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

under the ''

Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (WA) The ''Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016'' is a state-based act of parliament in Western Australia (WA). It came into force on 1 January 2019. This Act 2016 and its Regulations replace the ''Sandalwood Act 1929'' and the ''Wildlife Conservation ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4669562 Birds of Western Australia Houtman Abrolhos Turnicidae Taxa named by John Gould