Are there more of this beauty?

In February '09, this lovely rare quail was photographed in the Philippines for the first time before being sold in a poultry market. A local birdwatching group, the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, found the quail at a public market in the Caraballo mountains. The bird was being sold as a food item by locals.

The Worcester's buttonquail (Turnix worcesteri) is found only on the island of Luzon, and until this photo was taken, was known only through drawings based on museum specimens collected decades ago. Scientists had suspected the species was extinct. Michael Lu, president of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, said he hoped the fate of this bird will raise people's consciousness about threatened wildlife, asking "What if this was the last of its species?" Experts at Birdlife International said that the Worcester's buttonquail belongs to a shy and elusive family of birds, and hopefully, other members of the species survive undetected.