# King quail (*Synoicus chinensis*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/king-quail  
Data as of: 2026-11-11

The king quail (Synoicus chinensis) is a bird of the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. It is a small, terrestrial and sedentary bird of grassland, with an adult body mass of 40.41 g and up to 41.75 g. Its diet category is omnivore, and it lays 1 clutch of 6 eggs per year, with an incubation period of 16.5 days. Checklists record it in Australia, its geographic range covers 8,165,000 km², and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 40.4 g – 41.8 g |
| Length | Not recorded |
| Lifespan | Not recorded |
| Diet | Omnivore |
| Main food | Not recorded |
| Habitat | grassland |
| Egg incubation | 16.5 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 6 |
| Litters or clutches a year | 1 |
| Lifestyle | Terrestrial |
| Migration | Sedentary |
| Conservation status | Least Concern (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | 1 country |

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Galliformes
- family: Phasianidae
- genus: Synoicus
- species: *Synoicus chinensis* (Linnaeus, 1766)

Synonyms: *Coturnix chinensis*, *Coturnix chinensis_old*, *Coturnix excalfactoria*, *Excalfactoria chinensis*

## Countries on record

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.

Australia

## Common questions

### What kind of animal is the king quail?

The king quail is a bird of the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Other English names for it include Blue quail, Button quail and Asian blue quail.

### How heavy is the king quail?

The king quail has an adult body mass of 40.41 g, with values up to 41.75 g reported, placing it in the small size class.

### What does the king quail eat?

The king quail's diet category is omnivore.

### Is the king quail endangered?

No. The king quail is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.

### How many eggs does the king quail lay?

The king quail lays 6 eggs per clutch and 1 clutch per year. The eggs are incubated for 16.5 days.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), 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](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), 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](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), 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](https://commons.wikimedia.org), 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](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), 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).

Cite as: King quail (Synoicus chinensis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/king-quail