Turnix suscitator
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The barred buttonquail or common bustard-quail (Turnix suscitator) is a species of buttonquail, one of a small family (Turnicidae) of birds which resemble, but are not closely related to, the true quails. This species is resident from India across tropical Asia to south China, Indonesia and the Philippines.
The barred buttonquail was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the grouse like birds in the genus Tetrao and coined the binomial name Tetrao suscitator. Gmelin cited the English ornithologist Francis Willughby who in 1678 had described and illustrated the "Indian Quail of Brontius" from the Island of Java. The barred buttonquail is now placed in the genus Turnix that was introduced in 1791 by French naturalist in Pierre Bonnaterre. The genus name is an abbreviation of the genus Coturnix. The specific epithet suscitator is Latin and means "awakening".
Sixteen subspecies are recognised. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 2 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 3 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 4 | Way Kambas National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 5 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Gir National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 11 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 13 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 15 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 16 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 17 | Taman Negara National Park | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 18 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 19 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 20 | Tangkoko Nature Reserve | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 21 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 22 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 23 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 24 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 25 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rajkot | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 3 | Nashik | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Jakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 7 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 8 | Jaipur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Pune | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Barred Buttonquail sighting in Wilpattu National Park on a given day, based on 29 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 128th most-seen of the 169 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Barred Buttonquail in Wilpattu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–July and December–January, the lowest months. That is one of Wilpattu National Park's wettest months, with about 260 mm of rain against 40 mm in February.
Between 4 and 7 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Barred Buttonquail sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
5th of 25
Of the 25 parks where we can rate Barred Buttonquail sightings, Wilpattu National Park ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Udawalawe National Park (Sri Lanka, about 30%), Yala National Park (Sri Lanka, about 30%) and Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 10%).
Same order: Charadriiformes
The closest relatives of the Barred Buttonquail that you can see in Wilpattu National Park (order Charadriiformes, Shorebirds and Allies) are Red-wattled Lapwing (about 80%), Black-winged Stilt (about 60%) and Whiskered Tern (about 40%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Barred Buttonquail is recorded against all the birds logged in Wilpattu National Park (29 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
