Snow Mountain Quail
Other common names: New Guinea Quail
Taxonomy: Anurophasis monorthonyx van Oort, 1910, at 3800 metres, Oranje (Snow) Mountains, New Guinea.
The Snow Mountain Quail, Anurophasis monorthonyx is a large, approximately 28cm long, dark brown quail of Alpine grasslands. It is the only member of the genus Anurophasis. It has a brown plumage, a horn-coloured bill, yellow legs and a brown iris. The underparts of the female are whitish and more heavily black barred than in the male.
Near Threatened
The Snow Mountain Quail, Anurophasis monorthonyx is a large, approximately 28cm long, dark brown quail of Alpine grasslands. It is the only member of the genus Anurophasis. It has a brown plumage, a horn-coloured bill, yellow legs and a brown iris. The underparts of the female are whitish and more heavily black barred than in the male.
~28cm
Anurophasis monorthonyx van Oort, 1910, at 3800 metres, Oranje (Snow) Mountains, New Guinea.
Kemabu Plateau, and Mt Wilhelmina and Mt Carstenz (Snow Mts), Irian Jaya, W New Guinea.
An Indonesian endemic, the Snow Mountain Quail is confined to New Guineas highest elevations, the Snow Mountains of Irian Jaya. This little known bird is protected only by the remoteness of its habitat; an inaccessible area at an altitude above 3,000 metres
The diet consists mainly of seeds, flowers, leaves and other vegetation matters.
The female usually lays up to three pale brown, dark-spotted eggs in a hollow nest under the edge of a grass tussock.