Over the years the classification of the quail-thrushes has been very much a matter of opinion. This will probably never change. Any serious study into their life histories is unlikely to occur because of the difficulty involved - it's hard enough to even see them in the field let alone study them! At various stages the Western Quail-thrush has either been regarded as a full species or a subspecies of either the Chestnut-breasted or the Cinnamon - recently it has been afforded species status once again so I am providing a separate set of pictures and notes to draw attention to it.

Western Quail-thrushes occur in the very arid central inland of Western Australia between the Hamersley Range in the north, nearly to Kalgoorlie in the south and extending east to just over the South Australian border and in the N.T. almost to Uluru. The habitat they occur in is stony, open acacia shrubland, very similar to that occupied by Cinnamon Quail-thrushes in the east.

According to the excellent Handbook of Western Australian Birds, Western Quail-thrushes are winter breeders and eggs are laid from March to September but arid-zone birds like these will breed anytime after rain. Clutch size is one or two.

I took these pictures at Wanjarri Nature Reserve north of Leonora , W.A.