Plains Wanderer
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| Plains Wanderer Conservation status: Endangered | ||||||||||||||
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| Pedionomus torquatus Gould, 1841 |
The Plains Wanderer, Pedionomus torquatus, is a unique bird and is put in a family of its own. It is endemic to Australia.
It was formerly believed to be related to the buttonquails and thus placed in the gamebird order Galliformes or with the cranes and rails in Gruiformes, but DNA analysis shows it to be a wader.
This is a quail-like ground bird, measuring 15–19 cm. The adult male is light brown above, with fawn-white underparts with black crescents. The adult female has a distinctive white-spotted black collar.
This bird is officially an endangered species. Population decline has been caused by the conversion of native grasslands to cultivation.