Yellow-legged buttonquail

Yellow-legged buttonquail
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Charadriiformes
Family:	Turnicidae
Genus:	Turnix
Species:	T. tanki
Binomial name
Turnix tanki Blyth, 1843

The yellow-legged buttonquail (Turnix tanki) is a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails. They are endemic to the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

This family is peculiar in that the females are more colourful than the males and are polyandrous. Females have a bright rufous nape collar which is moulted during the non-breeding season. Females offer food to males during courtship and once the eggs are laid, the females leave incubation to the male. The eggs hatch after about 12 days (in captivity) and the chicks follow the male after hatching.^[2]

Downy four-day-old chicks

References

1. BirdLife International (2012). "Turnix tanki". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
2. Seth-Smith, D (1903). "On the breeding in captivity of Turnix tanki, with some notes on the habits of the species". Avicultural Magazine 1 (10): 317–324.