Is the small buttonquail “rare” or “rarely seen”? That question could well be riding piggyback on a false dilemma. eBird reviewer Gnanaskandan Kesavabharathi plants that doubt in the mind while answering that question. Shaped by inductive reasoning, his answer presents evidence for both possibilities.
Gnanaskandan has entered two records of the small buttonquail in eBird — both from Thaiyur lake, in the same year (2019), one in February and the other in July — and apparently no other records exist, not only from Chennai, but three South Indian states.
“They are the only records for the whole of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. A record from Karnataka apparently remains to be validated. There is a clear record from Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh. Consistent records for the small buttonquail are found only from Telengana and up, proceeding northwards. The small buttonquail is essentially a bird of Central and north India,” elaborates.
The small buttonquail is a skulker extraordinaire, a fact that might lead the investigator to assume it to be commoner in the southern states than what is suggested by citizen-science records.
However, the fact that the barred buttonquail — which shares habitat (grassland and scrubland) and disposition (a tendency to blend into the shadows) with the small buttonquail — is more frequently encountered in these parts seems to give the lie to that optimistic reasoning. Showing up relatively more frequently, the barred buttonquail can be considered part of the landscape in Chennai — usually, a hidden part of it.
Vikas Madhav Nagarajan, also an eBird reviewer, notes that he had seen the barred buttonquail multiple times at Guindy National Park, and also at SSN College and Siruthavur.
Gnanaskandan adds Nanmangalam to the list, and appends it with a remark: “Barred buttonquail is seen in all the scrub forests. It is a species well seen.”
Returning to the more elusive species, ornithologist V Santharam notes there are no historical records for the small buttonquail in Chennai and surrounding areas.
So, it would be prudent to safely place the small buttonquail within the intersecting points of two circles, “ rare” and “rarely seen”. Gnanaskandan believes a small but steady population of small buttonquail has dropped anchor in the Thaiyur lake and surrounding areas, his belief buttressed by the fact that the sightings were sufficiently spaced apart, and occurred during two different seasons of the year.
“The first sighting was that of a male small buttonquail in February. The second time around, which was in July, it was a pair. It was anything but a fleeing glimpse. The sighting happened on two days, and on both occasions, it was prolonged, lasting an hour, when they were foraging, heading into a bush and emerging out of it,” says Gnanaskandan. “As field knowledge about the small buttonquail is next to nothing, the first sighting — that of the lone male — led to many assumptions about the species’ movements. After we saw the pair in July, we entertained the idea that the species is a resident in these parts. In central and north India, the small buttonquail is a resident species.”
The small buttonquail is polyandrous, which means the male single-handedly shoulders child-rearing responsibilities.
As the small buttonquail is scarce; the species can partially be understood from observations of the barred buttonquail. Vikas extends the “inscrutability” of the barred buttonquail to the small buttonquail, which he has not seen in the field.
“On a couple of occasions when I sighted the barred buttonquail, I mistook it for a mouse,” reveals Vikas. The small buttonquail is just as diminutive — in truth, even more reduced in dimensions — as the barred buttonquail, thereby evading detection.
Gnanaskandan underlines a factor that would have predisposed the small buttonquail to being less seen.
“Birders would have gone into the field without expecting to see the small buttonquail, and in birding, lack of expectations becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you look for a specific bird, the odds are high that you will spot it.”
With the small buttonquail now expected to be seen in Chennai — at least around Thaiyur lake — it probably could be a different story.
Barred buttonquail in the grassland near Siruthavur lake. | Photo Credit: Vikas Madhav Nagarajan
