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Hottentot Buttonquail in the Kouga Mountains Happening to This Species

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Hottentot Buttonquail in the Kouga Mountains Happening to This Species DISCOVERY Cape. In fact, its SABAP2 distribu- recording of the Black-rumped A few weeks later, while on a tion is one of the sparsest of any Buttonquail. However, I did not transect over Naartjieskloofberg of South Africa’s terrestrial bird get a sighting and my curiosity was (1 340 metres above sea level), species. The blue dot on the map in- aroused. adjacent to Blue Hill Nature Re- dicates the location of the encoun- In mid-March I searched for serve in the Kouga Mountains, I ters discussed in this article. At the the species in the Gamkaberg Na- flushed something – and I knew very least, the Hottentot Button- ture Reserve, based on a report by it was not a Common Quail. The quail may be the most thinly dis- manager Tom Barry of birds calling jizz was more buoyant and instead tributed of South Africa’s endemic from the top of this fynbos-covered of a rapid flight off into the un- species, with four pentads with ad hill in the middle of the Little Ka- pursuable distance, the bird flopped hoc records and only listed for four roo in the Western Cape. Tom down untidily only 20 metres away. full-protocol pentads. In contrast knows his local birds very well. I I failed to find it a second time in to Ryan and Hockey’s study, Mike neither heard nor saw anything, the 12-year-old fynbos. Fraser’s density estimate of 0.004 despite undertaking a long hike in Despite the time that had elapsed birds per hectare (data from his the dark with call-playback equip- since the last fire in the area, the veg- 1990 MSc) would mean there are ment, but I was probably too late in etation cover was sparse and domi- no more than 400 individuals in the the season as both Tom and I had nated by restios, with the prevailing fynbos biome. heard the birds in December. Protea lorifolia no more than one BirdLife South Africa’s official metre high. This is because the north- checklists from 2011 to 2013 cat- THERE IS PROBABLY NO east-facing slopes in this region tend FYNBOS egorise the species as ‘Probably OTHER SOUTH AFRICAN to be hotter and drier and so vegeta- Critically Endangered’, while be- ENDEMIC AS WORTHY tion growth is very slow. cause of the lumped status, BirdLife OF A FOCUSED STUDY As I returned to my original po- International considers Hottentot/ sition, I put up yet another indi- below A male button­ Black-rumped Buttonquail a species AS TO ITS IDENTITY vidual. This bird dropped into the quail observed in July at of ‘Least Concern’. There is probably AND CONSERVATION undergrowth a mere 10 metres away Blue Hill Nature Reserve no other South African endemic as STATUS. WE URGENTLY but, again because of its incred- in the Kouga Mountains. enigma worthy of a focused study as to its ible camouflage and cryptic habits, NEED to DISCOVER identity and conservation status. We I couldn’t locate it. I walked straight opposite The feet of the urgently need to discover what is what IS HAPPENING past it while trying to follow up, only female Hottentot Button­ Hottentot Buttonquail in the Kouga Mountains happening to this species. to THIS SPECIES to hear it peeping, whereupon I > quail are distinctly yellow. THE HOttENTOT Buttonquail on a 1993 Checklist of Birds of the the Black-rumped Buttonquail and s part of the Fynbos En- Turnix hottentottus is an elusive Afrotropical and Malagasy regions, accord it separate species status. demic Bird Survey, for South African endemic and its true despite the fact that a split was While it is described in Sinclair and over a year I have regularly status is often debated. Although its mooted in Distribution and Tax- Hockey’s Birds of Southern Africa as hikedA across mountains, collect- plumage and eyes are lighter than onomy of Birds of the New World being ‘locally common’, it is catego- ing data on the six more common those of the Black-rumped Button- (1990). rised in Roberts VII as ‘. rare and fynbos endemic birds, namely quail T. nanus, BirdLife Interna- All South Africa’s prominent highly localised, but may be more Cape Sugarbird, Orange-breasted tional considers the two birds to be field guides consider the Hotten- common than previously thought’. Sunbird, Victorin’s Warbler, Cape conspecific. This grouping is based tot Buttonquail to be distinct from This is based on a 1994 survey, led Siskin, Protea Seedeater and Cape by Peter Ryan and Phil Hockey at Rockjumper. While I have occa- the Cape of Good Hope Nature sionally flushed buttonquail-like Reserve, which estimated a popu- birds, there has usually been too lation of 310 to 480 of these birds much doubt about the sighting to for the reserve, with the density in get positive species identification; coastal renosterveld at one bird per for instance, a young Common 28 to 44 hectares. That would make Quail Coturnix coturnix could be T it the third most common bird the same size as a Hottentot But- in this habitat type (more so than tonquail. On only one occasion Levaillant’s Cisticola and Yellow (while I was in the Kammanassie Bishop). Mountains, near Uniondale, in De- Yet SABAP2 data reflect only two cember) have I been confident that pentads from the Peninsula, with I was listening to a buttonquail as incidental records in one of the the hooting was indistinguishable most surveyed areas of the Western from the commercially available ALAN LEE (2) 20 AFRICAN BIRDLIFE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 HOTTENTOT BUTTONQUAIL 21 ... I COULD SCARCELY BELIEVE IT WHEN I YET AGAIN FLUSHED A HottEntot Button- quaIL. AND, A METRE FROM MY FEET WHERE THE BIRD HAD TAKEN OFF, ANOTHER INDIVID- UAL SAT FROZEN IN PLACE to head back over rocky terrain in the spot and what I suspect was a the drier shadow of the mountain, contact call. It was a very soft, al- retracing my steps. I am so glad most chick-like ‘peep peep’. I also that I did. heard a throatier clucking on a On again approaching the lo- couple of occasions, but could not ALAN LEE (2) cation of the sighting, camera at record this (and no, there were above The location turned around and flushed it again. the ready, I could scarcely believe definitely no chickens on the hill- of the buttonquail I was now positive that I’d seen a it when I yet again flushed a Hot- side). The only other birds present encounters on Naartjies­ pair of Hottentot Buttonquails. tentot Buttonquail. And, a metre were Orange-breasted Sunbirds, kloofberg, illustrating I eventually abandoned them to from my feet where the bird had Cape Buntings and a very dis- the short, tussocky na­ continue my survey, despite high taken off, another individual sat tant group of Cape Rockjumpers. ture of the vegetation. winds and low cloud cover. At frozen in place. I also played the Black-rumped the end of the five-kilometre hike This time I managed to take Buttonquail hoots, but there was top The Hottentot over Naartjieskloofberg I usually another couple of images before no response. Buttonquail in flight return home via a farm track, but I lost track of both birds, despite All in all, it was a very special lacks the black rump on this occasion that would have remaining in the area for a further sighting of one of our most enig- of the Black­rumped meant walking into the face of an 10 minutes and intermittently matic species. Buttonquail. icy south-westerly wind. I decided playing what I had recorded on ALAN LEE 22 AFRICAN BIRDLIFE.
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