Quail-plover
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Charadriiformes
Family: Turnicidae
Genus: Ortyxelos
Vieillot, 1825
Species:
O. meiffrenii
Binomial name
Ortyxelos meiffrenii
(Vieillot, 1819)

The quail-plover, lark buttonquail or lark-plover (Ortyxelos meiffrenii) is a small ground-living bird in the buttonquail family Turnicidae that is found in the Sahel region of Africa and in a disjunct region of East Africa. It is the only species placed in the genus Ortyxelos.[2]

Description

The quail-plover is a small, short-tailed cursorial bird which looks a little like a miniature courser when on the ground. The upperparts are a sandy-rufous colour and the underparts mainly whitish. They show a distinctive wing pattern in flight when the contrast between the white primary coverts and the black with white-tipped remiges to form a distinct diagonal band on the upperwing. Its fluttering flight style is rather lark-like. The females are slightly darker than the males while the juveniles are paler.[3]

Distribution and habitat

The quail-plover occurs in Sahel from southern Mauritania and northern Senegal eastwards to northern Cameroon and southern Chad[3] into South Sudan and southern Sudan[1] with separate populations in northern Benin and coastal Ghana,[3] with another in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia.[4]

Behaviour

The quail-plover is usually found singly or in pairs in dry grassland and thorn scrub. It is rather skulking preferring to move stealthily through grass but also running around like a courser in the open. Tends to crouch down and hide when approached and flushes only when the observer is almost on top of it and then flies off with a jerky undulating flight. It breeds during the dry season and moves north ahead of the rains[3] It tends to be more active at night and to call with a soft low whistle like the wind going through a pipe during moonlit nights.[5]

Conservation status

The quail-plover has an extremely large range, its population trend is not known, the population is not understood to be undergoing a sufficiently rapid decline to approach the thresholds under the population trend criterion while the population size has not been quantified so the species is evaluated as Least Concern.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b BirdLife International (2016). "Ortyxelos meiffrenii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22680603A92867780. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22680603A92867780.en. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
  2. ^ "ITIS Report: Ortyxelos". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  3. ^ a b c d Borrow, Nik; Demey, Ron (2001). Birds of Western Africa. A & C Black. p. 408. ISBN 0-7136-3959-8.
  4. ^ a b "Quail-plover Ortyxelos meiffrenii". Birdlife International. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
  5. ^ Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; Pearson, David J. (1996). Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania. Christiopher Helm. pp. 372–373. ISBN 0-7136-3968-7.
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