Small buttonquail: A big discovery in Chennai

Two sightings of the bird from Thaiyur lake in the OMR region remain the only records from three southern states

Is the small buttonquail “rare” or “rarely seen”? That question could well be riding piggyback on a false dilemma. eBird reviewer Gnanaskandan Kesavabharathi plants that doubt in the mind while answering that question. Shaped by inductive reasoning, his answer presents evidence for both possibilities.

Gnanaskandan has entered two records of the small buttonquail in eBird — both from Thaiyur lake, in the same year (2019), one in February and the other in July — and apparently no other records exist, not only from Chennai, but three South Indian states.

“They are the only records for the whole of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. A record from Karnataka apparently remains to be validated. There is a clear record from Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh. Consistent records for the small buttonquail are found only from Telengana and up, proceeding northwards. The small buttonquail is essentially a bird of Central and north India,” elaborates.

The small buttonquail is a skulker extraordinaire, a fact that might lead the investigator to assume it to be commoner in the southern states than what is suggested by citizen-science records.

However, the fact that the barred buttonquail — which shares habitat (grassland and scrubland) and disposition (a tendency to blend into the shadows) with the small buttonquail — is more frequently encountered in these parts seems to give the lie to that optimistic reasoning. Showing up relatively more frequently, the barred buttonquail can be considered part of the landscape in Chennai — usually, a hidden part of it.

Vikas Madhav Nagarajan, also an eBird reviewer, notes that he had seen the barred buttonquail multiple times at Guindy National Park, and also at SSN College and Siruthavur.

Gnanaskandan adds Nanmangalam to the list, and appends it with a remark: “Barred buttonquail is seen in all the scrub forests. It is a species well seen.”