Spotted Quail-thrush

 The Spotted Quail-thrush (1) (Cinclosoma punctatum) is an endemic Australian species which is sedentary and generally uncommon but may be relatively abundant at a local level. Our largest Quail-thrush, it is found in SE Australian forests and is the only forest dwelling Quail-thrush – the other six Quail-thrush species inhabit arid and semi-arid country, whereas the spotted prefer open dry forest with suitable understory and ground cover but not too dense or wet.

Their range extends East of the Great Dividing Range from SE Qld through NSW and Victoria to Tasmania. The Mt Lofty Ranges population in South Australia is now extinct. There is one 2015 record in Birdata from SA near the Victorian border. The sighting was submitted to SA Rarities and Distribution Sub-Committee and accepted as SARC 81.

Spotted Quail-thrush are variously described as shy, timid, retiring and elusive. Their high pitched contact calls are inaudible to many people including me, so finding them by calls is problematic. They can be found by flushing with their distinctive whirring of very short wings (see photos) and they may fly up to a perch briefly before flying some distance to the ground and cover. 

However they run rapidly over rough undulating ground and generally prefer to run for cover rather than flush and fly. They are most often seen by road sides from moving vehicles when they generally retreat to cover giving only brief glimpses.

Being ground dwelling and nesting birds they mostly walk, hence they have strong legs and short wings. Their moderately large eyes indicate adaptation for  life in dense understorey with low light. Their food consists of insects, seeds and small lizards taken from or close to the ground.

Dimorphic male and female plumage is quite different – see photos. Both male and female are stunningly beautiful birds with richly coloured and patterned markings for camouflage which is typical of many ground dwelling birds.

Given the characterises outlined above it is not surprising that photo opportunities are hard to come by for all of the Quail-thrush species. The following photos of both a female (first) and a male Spotted Quail-thrush were taken by chance on separate occasions in forest East of Lake Tyers while primarily looking for Glossy Black-Cockatoos in Black She-oak understory.

NOTE: You can left click on any photo to open a slide show of the photos free of text or a right click enables one photo at a time to be opened in a New Tab where an enlarged version can be viewed.

The female - note the very small and short wings and the relatively large eye.

The male.

The forests South of the Princes Highway and East of Lakes Entrance through to the Snowy River seem to me to be particularly rich with Spotted Quail-thrush. I have often wondered if this is due to the long running Southern Ark fox baiting program. While the habitat in this area suits them well, being ground dwellers and nesters Spotted Quail-thrush are vulnerable to fox and cat predation so reduced fox numbers would help them achieve greater breeding success. 

On the other hand I have noticed Lace Monitors are numerous in this same area possibly due to reduced fox predation and these large reptiles are top order predators which often take eggs and nestlings from bird nests. Hopefully the outcome of this mix of factors has resulted in an ecological balance, although our intervention with poison baits it is not a natural one. While the Southern Ark program benefits birds I think its main aim was to assist ground dwelling marsupials such as bandicoots and potoroos. 

NOTE (1): Quail-thrush name confusion - not a quail or a thrush. The following quote from Fraser and Gray,  Australian Bird Names a Complete Guide, gives a good and humorous comment on the confusion:

“ Why ‘quail-thrush’, a forced-blend of names of utterly unrelated birds not even belonging to the same Order, should be ‘more appropriate’ is beyond us but we suspect that the port decanter played a role. Well, we suppose that they (the quail-thrushes, not the committee) spend most of their time on the ground, like a quail, and sort of sing, sort of like a thrush…”