The common buttonquail was formally described and illustrated in 1789 by the French botanist René Louiche Desfontaines under the binomial name Tetrao sylvaticus.

It has streaked sandy brown upperparts, buff underparts with black flank markings, and a plain face.

[citation needed] This species is resident from southern Spain and Africa through India and tropical Asia to Indonesia.

This species avoids thick forest and hilly country, and lives by preference in cornfields and stretches of grassy plain though it may also be found in any type of low herbage and open scrub jungle.

[6] Widespread throughout its large range, the common buttonquail is evaluated as least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.