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Calendar:

2025

SAT, FEB 22, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, MAR 4, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (In-person and Zoom)

SAT, MAR 22, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, APR 1, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (Zoom)

SAT, APR 26, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, MAY 6, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (Zoom)

SAT, MAY 17, 2025
"Reading Rendezvous" on the Loussac Library lawn 12-4pm

SAT, MAY 24, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, JUN 3, 2025
NO EDUCATIONAL MEETING UNTIL AUGUST 1

SAT, JUN 21, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

SAT, JUN 21, 2025
Bird Club Picnic, Abbott Park, 11AM-3PM
CLICK HERE

TUE, JUL 1, 2025
NO EDUCATIONAL MEETING UNTIL AUGUST 5

SAT, JUL 26, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM

TUE, AUG 5, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM

SAT, AUG 23, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, SEP 2, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (In-person and Zoom)

SAT, SEP 27, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, OCT 7, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (Zoom)

SAT, OCT 25, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, NOV 4, 2025
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (Zoom)

SAT, NOV 22, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, DEC 2, 2025
Holiday Potluck AND Board Elections
(In-person and Zoom)

SAT, DEC 27, 2025
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

2026

TUE, JAN 6, 2026
Educational Meeting
(Zoom)7-9PM

SAT, JAN 24, 2026
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)

TUE, FEB 3, 2026
Educational Meeting
7-9PM (Zoom)

SAT, FEB 21, 2026
Board Meeting, 5-7PM (Zoom)


 

Bird of the Month: April 2008
Buttonquail
Archive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Our Bird of the Month for this month are Buttonquail. These miniature quail are perfect to compliment a finch aviary.

The buttonquails or hemipodes are a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails.

Buttonquail were traditionally placed in Gruiformes or Galliformes (the crane and pheasant orders). The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy elevated them to ordinal status as the Turniciformes and basal to other Neoaves either because their accelerated rate of molecular evolution exceeded the limits of sensitivity of DNA-DNA hybridization or because the authors did not perform the appropriate pairwise comparisons or both. Morphological, DNA-DNA hybridization and sequence data (Paton et al., 2003; Fain & Houde, 2004, Paton & Baker 2006) indicate that turnicids correctly belong to the shorebirds (Charadriiformes). They seem to be an ancient group among these, as indicated by the buttonquail-like Early Oligocene fossil Turnipax and the collected molecular data (Paton & Baker 2006).

This is an Old World group, which inhabits warm grasslands.

These are small drab running birds, which avoid flying. The female is the brighter of the sexes, and initiates courtship. The male incubates the eggs and tends the young.

All but one (the Quail-plover, Ortyxelos meiffrenii) of the 15 species are in the genus Turnix.

  • Small Buttonquail, or Andalusian Hemipode, Turnix sylvatica
  • Philippine Buttonquail, Turnix worcesteri
  • Sumba Buttonquail, Turnix everetti
  • Hottentot Buttonquail, Turnix hottentotta
  • Yellow-legged Buttonquail, Turnix tanki
  • Barred Buttonquail, Turnix suscitator
  • Madagascar Buttonquail, Turnix nigricollis
  • Spotted Buttonquail, Turnix ocellata
  • Black-breasted Buttonquail, Turnix melanogaster
  • Painted Buttonquail, Turnix varia
  • Chestnut-backed Buttonquail, Turnix castanota
  • Red-chested Buttonquail, Turnix pyrrhothorax
  • Red-backed Buttonquail, Turnix maculosa
  • Little Buttonquail, Turnix velox
  • Buff-breasted Buttonquail, Turnix olivei
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    The Alaska Bird Club • P.O. Box 101825 • Anchorage AK 99510
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    Voice mail: (907) 868-9070