Black-breasted buttonquail
Turnix melanogaster (Gould, 1837)
The black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) is a species in the family Turnicidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 75.8 g to 100 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Vulnerable.
Quick facts about the black-breasted buttonquail
- Weight
- 75.8 g – 100 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Invertivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forestsrc for Habitat
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.5src for Young per litter or clutch
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Migration
- Sedentarysrc for Migration
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the black-breasted buttonquail live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The black-breasted buttonquail is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the black-breasted buttonquail?
The black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) is a rare buttonquail endemic to eastern Australia. As with other buttonquails, it is unrelated to the true quails. The black-breasted buttonquail is a plump quail-shaped bird 17–19 cm (6.7–7.5 in) in length with predominantly marbled black, rufous, and pale brown plumage, marked prominently with white spots and stripes, and white eyes. Like other buttonquails, the female is larger and more boldly coloured than the male, with a distinctive black head and neck sprinkled with fine white markings. The usual sex roles are reversed, as the female mates with multiple male partners and leaves them to incubate the eggs.
The black-breasted buttonquail is usually found in rainforests, foraging on the ground for invertebrates in large areas of thick leaf litter. Most of its original habitat has been cleared and the remaining populations are fragmented. The species is rated as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Endangered species and is listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A three-year conservation project has been under way since 2021.
From the Wikipedia article “Black-breasted buttonquail” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black-breasted_buttonquail&oldid=1359016424), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the black-breasted buttonquail endangered?
The black-breasted buttonquail is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List: it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Vulnerable species.
How is the black-breasted buttonquail classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classAves
- orderCharadriiformes
- familyTurnicidae
- genusTurnix
- SpeciesTurnix melanogaster (Gould, 1837)
Synonyms Colcloughia melanogaster goweri, Hemipodius melanogaster
Other names and names in other languages (34)
- Black-breasted button-quailEnglish
- Black-breasted button-quailEnglish
- سمان ذو النقرة في الذقن أسود الصدرArabic
- Черногърдата трипръсткаBelarusian
- guatlla pintada pitnegraCatalan
- perepel queenslandskýCzech
- corsofliar frondduWelsh
- Sortbrystet LøbehøneDanish
- Schwarzbrust-LaufhühnchenGerman
- nigrabrusta turnicoEsperanto
- Torillo pechinegroSpanish
- metsledikEstonian
- viidakkopyyjuoksijaFinnish
- Turnix à poitrine noireFrench
- pjegava trkušaCroatian
- feketebegyű guvatfürjHungarian
- Quaglia tridattila pettoneroItalian
- ムナグロミフウズラJapanese
- juodakrūtė tripirštėLithuanian
- Díłdánii yił aheełtʼéhii bitéél halzhinígííNavajo
- ZwartborstvechtkwartelDutch
- svartbrystspringvaktelNorwegian
- przepiórnik czarnopierśnyPolish
- toirão-de-peito-pretoPortuguese
- Черногрудая трёхперсткаRussian
- Черногрудая трёхпёрсткаRussian
- prepeľovec čiernoprsýSlovak
- Crnogruda prepeličicaSerbian
- svartbröstad springhönaSwedish
- Kara Göğüslü BıldırcınyelvesiTurkish
- триперстка чорноволаUkrainian
- Cun cút ngực đenVietnamese
- 黑胸三趾鶉Chinese
- 黑胸三趾鹑Chinese
Relatives of the black-breasted buttonquail
Other species in the same genus Turnix.
Common buttonquail
Turnix sylvaticus
Barred buttonquail
Turnix suscitator
Yellow-legged buttonquail
Turnix tanki
Madagascar buttonquail
Turnix nigricollis
Fynbos buttonquail
Turnix hottentottus
Painted buttonquail
Turnix varius
CompareBlack-breasted buttonquail vs Common buttonquailBlack-breasted buttonquail vs Barred buttonquailBlack-breasted buttonquail vs Yellow-legged buttonquailBlack-breasted buttonquail vs Madagascar buttonquail
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the black-breasted buttonquail?
An adult black-breasted buttonquail weighs 75.8 g – 100 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the black-breasted buttonquail live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the black-breasted buttonquail for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the black-breasted buttonquail endangered?
The black-breasted buttonquail is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
What kind of animal is the black-breasted buttonquail?
The black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) belongs to the family Turnicidae in the order Charadriiformes.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-breasted-buttonquail
“Black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-breasted-buttonquail.
@misc{black_breasted_buttonquail_2026,
title = {Black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/black-breasted-buttonquail},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}