Few things beat breakfast in the bush, unless you’re the kind of person who thinks a bird with a fancy name is more important than coffee and cornflakes. The author was in the Mallee forest near Lake Gilles, about five hours north-west of Adelaide and roughly halfway across Australia, when guide Steve Potter heard a repetitive whistling call in the distance. The cornflakes had to wait.
They crept into the forest, stopping to listen, until a large, plump bird materialized beneath a bush and walked purposefully toward them: a copperback quail-thrush. Endemic to South and Western Australia, this species was only recently separated from the chestnut quail-thrush - which they also managed to see the very next day, because why not collect the set?
Like many Australian songbirds, “quail-thrush” is a lie: it’s neither a quail nor a thrush. The family is found only in New Guinea and Australia. But what a bird! It boasts a snow-white eyebrow, moustache, and belly, contrasting with a smart black throat and a radiant copper-coloured back. Its scientific name, Cinclosoma clarum, translates to “luminous tail-wagging thrush,” which sounds like a rejected Pokémon.
Unlike most songbirds, quail-thrushes are mainly terrestrial, walking unobtrusively across the forest floor and rarely bothering to fly. Of all the charismatic birds the author saw on a whistlestop tour of South Australia, this was the most memorable - and, the author insists, well worth delaying breakfast for. We’ll take their word for it.