Buttonquails as diminutive versions of flightless giants

10 March 2016 | Biobullets

Small Buttonquail Turnix sylvaticus Amravati (3). Maharashtra, India

Common buttonquail (Turnix sylvaticus). Photo © Dr. Raju Kasambe · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

Although unrelated to ostriches or emus, the buttonquails of Africa, Asia and Australasia are scaled-down representatives of the same life-strategy.

Buttonquails seldom exercise their ability to fly; the female produces one clutch after another while delegating incubation and rearing of offspring to a series of male partners; and the brain is so small that survival depends on extremely rapid growth from hatching to adulthood.

Robin and the Honey Badger, 22 August 2016

Photographs:
Buttonquail
Buttonquail
Buttonquail