Coturnicini is a tribe of birds in the subfamily Phasianinae. It contains the Old World quail, snowcocks, and African spurfowl, among others. Members of this tribe have a wide range throughout Africa, Eurasia, and Australasia. This tribe contains the only members of Pavoninae native to continental Europe, as well as the only members of Phasianidae as a whole native to Australasia. This grouping was supported by a 2021 phylogenetic analysis of Galliformes, and has been accepted by the International Ornithological Congress. The tribe name is accepted by the Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World.
Coturnicini
Image: Tetraogallus himalayensis Khumbu
Image: Ammoperdix heyi 6
Image: Coturnix ypsilophora granite island 1
The Phasianinae are a subfamily of the pheasant family (Phasianidae) of landfowl, the order Galliformes. The subfamily includes true pheasants, tragopans, grouse, turkey and similar birds. Although this subfamily was considered monophyletic and separated from the partridges, francolins, and Old World quails (Perdicinae) till the early 1990s, molecular phylogenies have shown that this placement is paraphyletic. For example, some partridges (genus Perdix) are more closely affiliated to pheasants, whereas Old World quails and partridges from the genus Alectoris are closer to junglefowls. There are two clades in the Phasianinae: the erectile clade and the non-erectile clades. Both clades are believed to have diverged during the early Oligocene, about 30 million years ago.
Image: Pheasant
Image: Pavo cristatus side view
Image: Snow Partridge At Tungnath Uttarakhand India
Image: Ithaginis cruentus geoffroyi, GarzĂȘ Tibetan AP, Sichuan 9S3A1928