Snow Mountain quail


The Snow Mountain quail, is a large, approximately 28 cm 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.
An Indonesian and New Guinean endemic, the Snow Mountain quail is confined to Western New Guinea's highest elevations, the Snow and Star Mountains. This little known bird is protected only by the remoteness of its habitat, a mostly inaccessible area at altitudes of.
The female usually lays up to three pale brown, dark-spotted eggs in a hollow nest under the edge of a grass tussock. The diet consists mainly of seeds, flowers, leaves, and other vegetable matter.
Due to its limited range, parts of which are getting increasingly accessible, the Snow Mountain quail is evaluated as "near threatened" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.