For 100 years, the night time parrot was the undisputed thriller chicken of Australian ornithology. Till the invention and subsequent examine of a tiny inhabitants in Queensland’s far west in 2013, two specimens discovered by the aspect of distant outback roads in 1990 and 2006, additionally in Queensland, have been the one arduous proof of its continued existence.
With the parrot now current and accounted for, there stays one Australian chicken that has by no means been photographed: the buff-breasted buttonquail.
Just like the night time parrot, it has gone a full century undetected. The final undisputed file was a specimen shot by the legendary naturalist William McLennan close to Coen in far north Queensland, in February 1922.
It could even be the primary Australian chicken condemned to extinction for the reason that paradise parrot – one more Queensland species, which was final seen alive within the Nineteen Twenties.
Buttonquail are a small household of ground-dwelling, polyandrous species that resemble however should not intently associated to “true” quail (a part of a a lot bigger group that additionally consists of pheasants and chickens). Distributed from sub-Saharan Africa throughout Asia and Australia, buttonquail largely reside in grasslands, fly solely when disturbed and should not usually seen.
Regardless of its enigmatic standing, the buff-breasted buttonquail (Turnix olivii) will not be an attractive species. It didn’t make the longlist for Guardian Australia’s 2023 chicken of the 12 months ballot. It’s a cryptic, dumpy, dowdy chicken that, within the exceedingly unlikely occasion you have been ever to see one, would seem as a whirr of wings exploding out of your ft and disappearing helter-skelter into the scrub.
That’s if ever you’re feeling like trudging by means of the baking sizzling savannah of Cape York Peninsula.
“The issue with buff-breasted buttonquail is you’ve received to be mad to review them, and also you’ve received to essentially love your buttonquails,” the group chief of the analysis and restoration of endangered species (Rares) crew on the College of Queensland, James Watson, says.
Enter graduate pupil Patrick Webster. In April 2018, Webster was aiding with night time parrot surveys at Pullen Pullen reserve in far west Queensland – any birdwatcher’s dream.
“I used to be with him when he noticed his first night time parrot after which a few hours of later he noticed his first little buttonquail. He was way more excited in regards to the buttonquail,” Watson says.
Webster admits he had bother discovering a supervisor who would tackle his proposal to review the buff-breasted buttonquail for his doctorate till Watson put his hand up.
“I used to be beginning to grow to be fairly captivated with this group of birds and right here was one which was just about unknown to science,” Webster says. “I noticed that as a niche in our understanding, a niche that I may fill and that was the attract.”
Unreliable memoirs
And so for 4 years – largely throughout the near-unbearable humidity of the early moist season – Webster and Watson slogged by means of the dry woodlands of Cape York. They concentrated their early efforts between Mareeba and Mount Molloy, the place for many years hardcore birders had claimed to have encountered the species, with out conclusive proof.
Full disclaimer: I used to be considered one of them. In late January 2007 I walked the hills south of Mount Molloy for 3 days, and on three events flushed what I regarded as buff-breasted buttonquail. However with no {photograph}, my fading reminiscences are an unreliable witness to observations lasting no quite a lot of seconds.
Many instances early of their fieldwork, Webster and Watson thought they’d discovered the species. Massive buttonquail becoming accepted area descriptions of the buff-breasted can be startled from below their ft. However every time they have been capable of relocate the birds, hiding or scuttling by means of the grass, they’d be upset.
Invariably, the birds turned out to be the intently associated painted buttonquail (Turnix varius), a way more frequent and broadly distributed species.
“A sequence of pink flags began to emerge,” Webster says. “It took 12 to 18 months to grasp what was occurring.”
They modified course. Webster was briefly despatched to review a 3rd species, chestnut-backed buttonquail, which replaces the buff-breasted buttonquail within the High Finish and Kimberley. It too is little-known, however Webster had no bother monitoring it down, even discovering the species in Queensland for the primary time.
Webster’s capability to search out buttonquail was not in query. An uncomfortable conclusion of mistaken id was being drawn.
“All people was going to the identical website to search for the chicken after which it could grow to be a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he says.
Which led to an much more troubling conclusion: that the buff-breasted buttonquail was in a lot deeper bother than already believed.
Webster, Watson and the Rares crew nominated the chicken to be moved from endangered to critically endangered standing below state and federal laws. The Queensland authorities accepted the advice in late 2022. The buff-breasted buttonquail continues to be listed as endangered below the federal Environmental Safety and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
On the lookout for buttonquail in all of the improper locations
Richard Schodde, an eminent Australian botanist and ornithologist agrees with Webster that human psychology has performed a task in making a fable across the species.
“Individuals exit in that nation, flush a giant buttonquail below their ft, and assume the one factor it may be is a buff-breasted buttonquail. They usually all need to say they’ve seen one,” he says.
Schodde believes buff-breasted buttonquail have been by no means current on the northern Atherton Tablelands. There’s, he says, a biogeographical divide from Cooktown northwards, with its personal grasses and eucalypts – principally Darwin stringybark – which the buff-breasted buttonquail prefers.
In concept, Schodde says, which means that buff-breasted and painted buttonquail shouldn’t exist alongside one another.
“They’ve received to maintain looking up round that nation the place McLennan first discovered it, and in floristic habitat prefer it elsewhere on the peninsula – that’s the best way to do that job.”
However not all scientists share Schodde’s view. “We all know so little in regards to the buff-breasted buttonquail that it’s very arduous to be definitive about habitat preferences,” says Stephen Garnett, co-author of The Motion Plan for Australian Birds. He notes that pastoralism and altered hearth regimes have dramatically modified the panorama since McLennan’s observations.
Regardless, Schodde says the sooner perception {that a} inhabitants of buff-breasted buttonquail appeared safe on the northern Atherton Tablelands had created complacency across the true standing of the species.
Regardless of the passage of a century and his failure to date to search out the chicken, Webster stays assured the buff-breasted buttonquail nonetheless exists.
“Primarily, all the survey effort for this species has been carried out in areas the place they don’t happen,” Webster says. “And never simply myself, clearly – all people.”
One factor is for certain. If the buff-breasted buttonquail continues to be on the market, it’s extraordinarily uncommon.
This article by Andrew Stafford was first revealed by The Guardian on 28 December 2023. Lead Picture: An illustration of the buff-breasted buttonquail by John Keulemans, revealed in The Birds of Australia (1911). {Photograph}: John Gerrard Keulemans.
What you are able to do
Assist to avoid wasting wildlife by donating as little as $1 – It solely takes a minute.
