Tag Archives: Turnicidae

Turnix olivii Robinson

Buff-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix olivii)  

The Buff-breasted Buttonquail was described in 1900; it is, or maybe was, restricted to the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia.

The species reaches a size of 18 to 23 cm, as in all buttonquail species, the females are larger than the males.

The Buff-breasted Buttonquail was allegedly last seen in 2015; however, this sighting is unconfirmed; subsequent species-targeted surveys between 2018 and 2021 including things like camera trapping, call playback etc. did find all of the other Australian buttonquail species yet not this one.

The species’ population may have been affected by predation by introduced mammals, especially by feral cats, but buttonquails are also known to be highly vulnerable to climate changes due to their high climate change sensitivity and low adaptive capacity; thus it is very likely that this species is already extinct.

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Depiction from: ‘Gregory M. Mathews: The Birds of Australia. London, Witherby & Co. 1910-1927’

(public domain) 

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edited: 19.02.2024

Turnix sp. ‘Timor’

Timor Buttonquail (Turnix sp.)

This bird is known from several subfossil bones that were found during excavations on the island of Timor, Indonesia; it occurred on that island sympatrically with another buttonquail species, the Red-backed Buttonquail (Turnix maculosus (Temminck)) which is native to parts of Asia as well as Australia.

The remains were dated to an age of about 1372 to 1300 BP. 

The Timor Buttonquail was larger than the other species and probably was endemic to the island or at least to the region, it is now clearly extinct. [1]

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References:

[1] Hanneke J. M. Meijer; Julien Louys; Sue O’Connor: First record of avian extinctions from the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of Timor Leste. Quaternary Science Reviews 203: 170-184. 2019

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edited: 03.10.2020

Turnix sylvatica ssp. suluensis Mearns

Sulu Small Buttonquail (Turnix sylvatica ssp. suluensis)

The Small Buttonquil (Turnix sylvatica (Desfontaines)) occurs with nine subspecies from parts of Africa and southern Europe to Southeast Asia; about four subspecies occur in the Philippine Islands alone.

The subspecies that once occurred on the island of Jolo in the Sulu Islands was last seen in the 1950s and is now considered most likely extinct.

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The nominate form was known to inhabit the island of Sicily, Italy, where the species apparently was last recorded during the 1920s, as well as Andalusia, Spain where it was last recorded in 1981. This form survives today only in a small area in Morocco, where only an extremely small population of about a hand full of individuals exist. [1][2]

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References:

[1] Carlo G. Violani; Bruno Massa: Extinction of the Andalusian Hemipode Turnix s. sylvatica (Desf.) in the Mediterranean region. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 113(4): 225-229. 1993
[2] Daniel Lingenhöhl: Erste europäische Vogelart seit Riesenalk ausgestorben. Spektrum.de. 16. November 2018

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edited: 03.10.2020

Turnix novaecaledoniae Ogilvie-Grant

New Caledonian Buttonquail (Turnix novaecaledoniae)

The New Caledonian Buttonquail is known only by the single type specimen, a male that was apparently found on Grande Terre, New Caledonia sometimes before 1889; the species is also known by numerous subfossil remains that were recovered from cave deposits.

The species reached a size of about 19 cm. 

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The New Caledonian Buttonquail is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Painted Buttonquail (Turnix varius (Latham)) from Australia, but being clearly very distinct from that species it is now considered a full species.

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References:

[1] Stuart H. M. Butchart; Stephen Lowe; Rob W. Martin; Andy Symes; James R. S. Westrip; Hannah Wheatley: Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Biological Conservation 227: 9-18. 2018

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edited: 03.10.2020