Rain Quail

The rain quail, or black-breasted quail, is a small quail of 15–17cm and roughly 64–71g. The male is easy to recognise by a black patch on the breast and a bold black-and-white head pattern. The female is much harder: she closely resembles female common and Japanese quail, though her breast spots are finer, and the species has no barring on the primaries. Its call is a metallic, constantly repeated pair of notes, given in the morning and evening and also at night in the breeding season (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in grassland, crop fields and scrub and eats the seeds of grasses and other plants, insect larvae and small invertebrates. Breeding runs from March to October, mostly after the south-west monsoon breaks in June. Six to eight eggs are laid in a ground scrape, sometimes under a bush, and hatch after 16–18 days; the chicks leave the nest almost at once and stay with their parents for about eight months. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline in India of about 80% and rates it a Moderate conservation priority; its movements within India are uncertain (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).