Remember how I said that New World quail aren’t that closely related to Old World quail, especially the Coturnix quail?
The Chinese painted quail or Asian blue quail is the smallest of the Coturnix species. It is relatively common species for aviculture, and it is often kept as an aviary species. Its natural range runs from southern China through Southeast Asia into Australia.
However, it is not a buttonquail. In fact, a buttonquail isn’t a quail. It is not an Coturnix or a New World quail. Buttonquail aren’t even in the order Galliformes, the order for chickens, pheasants, and other birds of that type. The Asian blue quail is often sold as a buttonquail, but it is not.
The true buttonquail (Turnix) are actually more closely related to shorebirds, especially plovers.
The Luzon or Worcester’s button quail of Luzon in the Philippines was once thought extinct, but one was found earlier this year in a market in the Caraballo Mountains. A photograph was taken of the bird, where it was being sold as table fare.
I would like to have finch aviary one of these days.
And I would love to have a few Chinese painted or Asian blue quail running along the aviary floor. But just don’t call them buttonquail.
