Buttonquail
| Buttonquail | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Black-breasted buttonquail (Turnix melanogaster) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Charadriiformes |
| Family: | Turnicidae Gray, GR, 1840 |
| Type species | |
| Tetrao gibraltaricus[1] Gmelin, 1788 | |
| Genera | |
 | |
| Distribution of the buttonquails | |
Buttonquail or hemipodes are members of a small family of birds, Turnicidae, which look like, but are not closely related to, the quails of Phasianidae. They live in warm grasslands in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia. There are 18 species in two genera, with most species in the genus Turnix and one species in the genus Ortyxelos.
Buttonquails are small, not colorful, running birds, which do not fly often. The female is the more brightly colored of the sexes. While the quail-plover is thought to be monogamous, Turnix buttonquails are usually polyandrous: both sexes work together in building a nest in the ground, but normally only the male incubates the eggs and takes care of the young, while the female may go on to have babies with other males.
