These are a large, ground-dwelling bird endemic to Australia and found throughout the continent except for very arid regions and heavily forested areas, formerly quite common their numbers have declined through loss of habitat and predation by foxes and feral cats, they are considered to be endangered in New South Wales. They are still reasonably common here but are difficult to find because of their camouflage and often their presence is only indicated by their eerie wailing calls after dusk, look for them in open, wooded areas.
They are mainly nocturnal and specialise in hunting small grassland animals like frogs, spiders, insects, crustaceans, snakes, lizards and small mammals which are mostly gleaned or probed from soft soil or rotting wood. Birds usually forage individually or in pairs over a large home range, during the day they remain inactive, sheltering amongst tall grass or low shrubs and relying on their cryptic plumage to protect them from predators.
Breeding season is from July to January when more than one brood may be raised, the sexes are indistinguishable and the nest is a shallow scrape in the ground where both adults share the incubation and care of the young. The lower photo is of a chick, as you can see these are camouflaged like the adults and stay quite still.