Use of mature hoop pine plantation by the vulnerable Black-breasted Button-quail (Turnix melanogaster)

Seventeen Black-breasted Button-quail were caught within a 24 ha corridor of vine forest within a mature (i.e. 50 years old) hoop pine plantation—vine forest matrix, near Yarraman, south-east Queensland. Six of these birds were fitted with a radio-transmitter and tracked prior to clear felling of a section of hoop pine. Four Black-breasted Button-quail were tracked after timber harvesting operations had ceased. Prior to harvesting. Black-breasted Button-quail were found to occur up to 120 m into the hoop pine plantation from the vine forest edge. Hoop pine with a closed canopy and well-developed understorey was used by the species. The activity area of the females ranged from 3.0 to 4.4 ha in the pre-harvest period and 5.2 to 17.9 ha post-harvest. Observations during the breeding season indicated that males caring for offspring had a smaller activity area than non-breeding males (1.9 ha compared to 6.2 ha). Circumstantial evidence suggests there was a turnover in the population following clearfelling of the mature hoop pine compartment.