Few things beat breakfast in the bush. We were in the Mallee forest near Lake Gilles, about five hours north-west of Adelaide, and more or less halfway across Australia.
But although I am famous for enjoying my food, I love birds even more. And so when my guide Steve Potter detected a repetitive whistling call in the distance, our coffee and cornflakes had to wait.
We headed quickly but quietly into the forest, stopping every now and then to listen. The call seemed to be coming from head height, very close by. Then a large, plump bird materialised beneath a bush, walking purposefully towards us: a copperback quail-thrush.
Endemic to South and Western Australia, this species was recently separated from the chestnut quail-thrush, which we also managed to see the very next day. Like the names of many Australian songbirds, “quail-thrush” is not what it seems. Neither a quail, nor a thrush, the family is found only in New Guinea and Australia.
And what a bird! Its snow-white eyebrow, moustache and belly contrasted with the smart black throat, and the radiant, copper-coloured back that gives the bird its English name; the scientific name, Cinclosoma clarum, translates as “luminous tail-wagging thrush”.
Unlike most songbirds, quail-thrushes are mainly terrestrial, walking unobtrusively across the forest floor, and rarely bothering to fly. Of all the many charismatic birds I saw on my whistlestop tour of South Australia, this was by far the most memorable. And well worth delaying breakfast for.
