BIRDS of THE WORLD - An Online Bird Book
HOME
SEARCH 
INDEX

GALLIFORMES

Galliformes are heavy-bodied ground-feeding domestic or game birds. Most are plump-bodied with thick necks and moderately long legs, and have rounded and rather short wings. They do not fly well if at all, but walk and run instead for transportation. These birds vary greatly in size from 12-120 cm. Many adult males have one to several sharp horny spurs on the back of each leg, which they use for fighting. They can be found worldwide and in a variety of habitats, including forests, deserts, and meadows. Male courtship behavior includes elaborate visual displays of plumage. Gallinaceous birds feed on a variety of plant and animal material, which may include fruits, seeds, leaves, shoots, flowers, tubers, roots, insects, snails, worms, lizards, snakes, small rodents, and eggs.

Some of the Gallifrom families:
Cracidae: chachalac, curassow, guan.  Numididae : Guineafowl   Odontophoridae : New World Quail
Phasianidae: francolin, grouse, partridge, pheasant, Old World quail.



Old World Quail

Order Galliformes    Family Phasianidae

Old World quails are ground living species. They are generally plump, with broad relatively short wings. The legs are short and powerful, There is generally sexual dimorphism in size, with males tending to be larger than females. Males of the larger species often have brightly colored plumage as well as facial ornamentations such as wattles or crests.

New World Quails and Old World Quails are not closely related, but because of convergent evolution they have similar appearances and behavior.


Genus Anurophasis - 1 species

Quail,_Snow_Mountain   Anurophasis monorthonyx  Found: Indonesia
The Snow Mountain Qauil has mainly brown plumage; yellow legs. Underparts of female are more whitish and heavily barred than the male.
Image by: 1) Gossip_Guy  2) Nigel Voaden
1) Female - left; male -right.



Genus Coturnix

Quail,_Brown  Coturnix ypsilophora also  Synoicus ypsilophorus Found: Australasia
The Brown Quail has reddish-brown upperparts with dark spots. The underparts range from buff or rufous to brown, but always with fine black chevron-shaped barring. Female is similar but paler.
Image by: 1) Steve_Elson  2) Werner Witte - NT  3) David Cook  4) Aviceda - Dayboro, SE Queensland     5) Peripitus - Granite Island, Victor Harbour, South Australia



Quail,_Common  Coturnix coturnix Found: Europe, Asia, Africa
The Common Quail has streaked brown plumage; white supercilium. Male has a white chin.
Similar to: Japanese Quail. Range of Common Quail and Japanese Quail do not overlap.
Image by: 1) Luis Sanchez - Spain   2) Guerin Nicolas   3) Jan_Svetlik
1) Female  2) Male


Quail,_Harlequin  Coturnix delegorguei  Found: Africa
Image by: 1) Rochelle  2) P_Khoo  3) Christoph_Lorse   4, 5) Bernard Dupont - South Africa



Quail, Japanese  Coturnix japonica  Found: east Asia
The Japanese Quail has mottled yellow-brown plumage; creamy-white supercilium.
Similar to: Common Quail. Range of Common Quail and Japanese Quail do not overlap.
Image by: 1) Lin_Sun_Fong - Taiwan   2) Killer9394  3) Kevin Lin


Quail,_Rain   Coturnix coromandelica  Found: Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia
The male Rain Quail has a black breast-patch and distinctive head pattern of black and white. The female is difficult to separate from female Common Quail, although the spots on the breast are more delicate.
Image by: 1) Alfred_William_Strutt  2) Vinayak_Yardi  3) The_Belurs 4) Pratiksha_Kothule
1) Pair 2) Female 3, 4) Male


Quail,_Stubble   Coturnix pectoralis  Found: Australia
The Stubble Quail has dark brown plumage with a cream coloured strip down the center of each feather giving rise to stripes down the length of the bird.
Image by: 1) NRG899 2) Ron_Knight  3, 4) Nik Borrow  5) patrickkavanagh 
1) Dark red - Common; light red - nomadic
2, 3) Female 4, 5) Male




Genus Excalfactoria

Quail,_Blue Excalfactoria adansonii or Synoicus adansoniiFound: Africa
The male Blue Quail has mostly dark slaty-blue plumage; brown head; black and white throat. Female has orange-buff head, flanks; buff underparts.
Image by: 1) Finch_Davies  2) Sandy Rae


Quail,_Chinese Painted also Asian Blue Quail, Blue-breasted Quail, King Quail  Excalfactoria chinensis also Synoicus chinensis    Found: southeast Asia
There are approximately 10 different subspeices of this quail.T he male Chinese Painted Quail comes in many colors, including blue, brown, silver, maroon, dark brown & almost black. The female is similar to the male but cannot come in shades of blue.
Image by: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7) Dick Daniels - Butterfly World in Florida  3) Dick - Butterfly World in Florida




Genus Perdicula

Quail,_Jungle_Bush-   Perdicula asiatica  Found: India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
The male Jungle-Bush-Quail has heavily barred white underparts; white moustache. Female has uniformly rich chestnut underparts.
Image by: 1, 2) Koshy_Koshy- India  3) Shantanu_Kuveskar  4) Antony_Grossy
1) Female   2) Juvenile male  3, 4) Male


Quail,_Manipur_Bush-   Perdicula manipurensis  Found: India
Image by: 1) Ogilvie-Grant


Quail,_Painted_Bush-   Perdicula erythrorhyncha  Found: India
The Painted Bush-Quail has mainly reddish plumage with dark markings. Only the male has white supercilium, throat.
Image by: 1) Charles_J_Sharp  2) Vasanthan  Udaya Kumar Balasubramanian
1) Female left, male right   2) Male and chick   3) Male


Quail,_Rock_Bush-   Perdicula argoondah  Found: western half of India
The Rock Bush-Quail is very similar to and overlaps its range with the Jungle Bush-Quail. ] A diagnostic feature is that the outermost primary feather is longer than the innermost, and the inner web of the primaries is barred or speckled with buff.
Image by: 1) Raju_Kasambe 2) aju Kasambe  3) Koshy Koshy - India 
1, 2) Pair, male on left   3) Male







Back to Top