CreatureData

Red-backed buttonquail

Turnix maculosus (Temminck, 1815)

LCLeast Concernbirds

The red-backed buttonquail (Turnix maculosus) is a species in the family Turnicidae, order Charadriiformes. Recorded adults weigh 33.9 g to 45.2 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

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Quick facts about the red-backed buttonquail

Weight
33.9 g – 45.2 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Omnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
grasslandsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
13.5 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
4src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
11.9 monthssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
2src for Litters or clutches a year
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Sedentarysrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the red-backed 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 red-backed buttonquail is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the red-backed buttonquail?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The red-backed buttonquail (Turnix maculosus) is a species of bird in the family Turnicidae. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. Other names by which it is known in different parts of its range include black-backed, black-spotted and orange-breasted buttonquail. There are fourteen recognised subspecies.

From the Wikipedia article “Red-backed buttonquail” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Red-backed_buttonquail&oldid=1314793897), 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 red-backed buttonquail endangered?

The red-backed buttonquail is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the red-backed buttonquail classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderCharadriiformes
  5. familyTurnicidae
  6. genusTurnix
  7. SpeciesTurnix maculosus (Temminck, 1815)

Synonyms Turnix maculosa, Turnix maculosa, Turnix maculosa, Turnix maculosa

Other names and names in other languages (32)
  • Red-backed button-quailEnglish
  • Red-backed button-quailEnglish
  • سمان ذو النقرة في الذقن أحمر الظهرArabic
  • guatlla pintada dorsi-rojaCatalan
  • perepel australasijskýCzech
  • Grårygget LøbehøneDanish
  • FleckenlaufhühnchenGerman
  • ruĝdorsa turnicoEsperanto
  • Torillo moteadoSpanish
  • rohuledikEstonian
  • ruohikkopyyjuoksijaFinnish
  • Turnix mouchetéFrench
  • sivoleđa trkušaCroatian
  • foltos guvatfürjHungarian
  • Gemak totolIndonesian
  • Quaglia tridattila dorsorossoItalian
  • アカエリミフウズラJapanese
  • šlakuotoji tripirštėLithuanian
  • RoodrugvechtkwartelDutch
  • rødhalsspringvaktelNorwegian
  • przepiórnik cienkodziobyPolish
  • toirão-malhadoPortuguese
  • toirão-de-dorso-vermelhoPortuguese
  • Красноспинная трёхперсткаRussian
  • Красноспинная трёхпёрсткаRussian
  • prepeľovec ostrozobýSlovak
  • Crvenoleđa prepeličicaSerbian
  • gråryggig springhönaSwedish
  • Kızıl Sırtlı BıldırcınyelvesiTurkish
  • триперстка тонкодзьобаUkrainian
  • 紅背三趾鶉Chinese
  • 红背三趾鹑Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the red-backed buttonquail

Other species in the same genus Turnix.

CompareRed-backed buttonquail vs Common buttonquailRed-backed buttonquail vs Barred buttonquailRed-backed buttonquail vs Yellow-legged buttonquailRed-backed buttonquail vs Madagascar buttonquail

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the red-backed buttonquail?

An adult red-backed buttonquail weighs 33.9 g – 45.2 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the red-backed buttonquail live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the red-backed buttonquail for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the red-backed buttonquail endangered?

The red-backed buttonquail is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the red-backed buttonquail?

The red-backed buttonquail (Turnix maculosus) 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.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Red-backed buttonquail (Turnix maculosus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-backed-buttonquail

MLA

“Red-backed buttonquail (Turnix maculosus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-backed-buttonquail.

BibTeX
@misc{red_backed_buttonquail_2026,
  title = {Red-backed buttonquail (Turnix maculosus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/red-backed-buttonquail},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}