Jungle Bush-Quail

The jungle bush-quail is a small quail of peninsular India and Sri Lanka, 15 to 18 cm long. Males have brown upperparts with blackish and buff marking, whitish underparts barred in black, and a mainly dark reddish-brown face with a buffy-white moustache. Females have a similar pattern but pinkish-brown underparts, more uniform wings and a duller moustache (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range it lives in dry areas with shrubby or rocky cover and feeds on seeds and small insects, usually in groups of 6 to 25. It nests in shallow scrapes in cover and lays 4 to 8 eggs, which only the female incubates. Nationally Critically Endangered (Sri Lanka National Red List 2012).