Common Buttonquail

The common buttonquail, also called the Kurrichane buttonquail or Andalusian hemipode, is a small, drab running bird about 15 cm long that avoids flying. It resembles the common quail, but in flight a whitish wing bar contrasts with the grey wing. Buttonquails resemble true quails but are not closely related to them (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is resident from southern Spain and Africa through India and tropical Asia to Indonesia, in warm grassland or scrub jungle, and feeds on insects and seeds. The female calls with a deep hoom-hoom-hoom and the male replies kek-kek-kek. The female begins courtship and builds the ground nest, a slight pad of grass in a natural hollow, usually tucked among the stems of a tuft of grass. The nesting season is June to September, and the male incubates the normally four speckled greyish eggs and tends the young, which can run as soon as they hatch. SoIB 2023 lists it as a local migrant of grassland and scrub that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).