We froze in our tracks and watched. The fox continued to slowly wander in an erratic path, nose to the ground. Suddenly it stopped, ears erect, looking and listening intently in the direction of a patch of brush from which emanated the metallic sounding alarm "pit-pit". Our hearts started pounding. The fox stalked forward slowly on its tiptoes, then froze, with its left paw out in front. Bursting from the bush on whizzing wings, a plump, gray figure appeared. Gathering its body, the fox leapt into the air and with its left fore paw snagged the fleeing quail--like a baseball infielder diving for a sizzling line drive down the third base line! The fox came down with its paws together pinning its victim chucking "pseu-pseu". The fox poked its muzzle between its paws and the Quail's "Wild Cries" were silenced.

California State Bird

California Quail (Callipepla californica) was adopted by the California Legislature in 1931 as our official State Bird. These delightfully feathered birds, accented by distinctive feathered plumes called top-knots, are members of the Phasianidae Family. These are stout-bodied birds with strong feet and legs designed for life on the ground. Like other members of the Turkey, Pheasant, Grouse and Partridge family, Quail are capable of short, swift flight and often run to escape danger.

Mountain Quail and Gamble's Quail

There are two other native types of quail in California, the Mountain Quail and the Gamble's Quail. The short, black, forward curving, crown plumes of the California and Gamble's quail distinguishes them from the Mountain Quail, which has a long, straight plume lying back over its head. The California and Gamble's Quail are similar in size and general appearance. The females of both are less colorful and have shorter top knots. The Gamble's can be distinguished by the rusty red cap on its head, the black spot on its creamy white belly, and the streaks of rich chestnut and white on its sides. California Quail have scale-like markings across their lower breast, which is not present in the Gamble's. Of our three species of Quail, the California is the most wide spread. The Gamble's is found in the deserts in the southeastern portion of our state and along the Colorado River. The Mountain Quail is found in the high mountains from the Mexico border to Oregon.

Quail Habitat: Food, Water and Cover

California Quail require habitat that contains proper amounts and distribution of food, water and cover. They do not migrate and tend to spend their entire lives in an area usually two miles in diameter. They take shelter in brush vegetation and stream side thickets. They avoid dense forests. The best quail habitat includes, broken terrain with a close intermingling of open feeding areas next to protective brush. In our area, the bushy cover composed of Coyote Brush, Blackberry, Wild Lilac, Toyon, Poison Oak and various species of Oaks is ideal. The brush vegetation not only provides for safety, but also food. Quail move about mainly on foot, scratching and pecking the ground like chickens. During the fall, the most important foods of the quail are seeds, and the fruits and leaves of woody plants. Some of the seeds found in their diet are filaree, turkey mullein, fiddle neck and acorn fragment, and especially members of the pea family such as clover, lupines and trefoils. Once the winter rains begin, their diet switches to one consisting of the green leaves of forbs (non-grassy, herbaceous plants) clovers and grasses.

Predators and Cover

Quail rarely venture further than 50 feet from safety. The route taken on their daily travels is determined by the presence of an escape cover. For this reason, they avoid broad, open expanses of grass dominated range land. After their morning feeding, quail retreat to a dense cover that shelters them from the elements and provides protection from predators (hawks, owls, coyotes, bobcats, foxes and feral/domestic cats). There they spend the day at rest until evening when feeding begins once again. At night, they roost off the ground, in dense trees or tall shrubs.

(Photo: Cooper's Hawk with small bird in his talons; by John Jancoski, Fremont, California, USA)

Social Birds:

The Quail Covey and Communication

California Quail are social birds. During the fall and winter months they gather in groups composed of 7 to 70 individuals known as a covey. These coveys can get quite large, being composed of as many as 800 to 1400 birds. The normal wild California Quail covey averages about 50 birds. The vocal repertoire of the quail includes at least 14 different sounds. They make a variety of clucks and calls for alarm, aggression, maintaining contact and courtship. For example, when a covey member is visually separated from the others, it utters a three-noted assembly call, "where are you" (also interpreted as "chi-ca-go", "come-right-here", or "cu-ca-cou"), with the second note higher than the others. Their easy going, group-loving behavior changes profoundly with the onset of Spring.

Family Life: The male quail as a model husband and father

Beginning some time in March or early April, the coveys start to break up. During this time considerable fussing and fierce passages at wing length between cocks occur over hens. At this time, bachelors form "crowing territories" to attract females. An unwed male announces and displays his matrimonial desires from an exposed perch (tree shrub, rock, fence post) by repeating at intervals a single, very resonant "cow" note, and stretching his head and neck upwards during each performance. Guarding their mates, monogamous pairs leave the covey to find suitable nesting sites.

Nesting, Eggs and Chicks

A great variety of nest sites are used by quail. They are generally built on the ground and well hidden from view. Despite this fact, nest predators such as ground squirrels, snakes, weasels, and raccoons find and destroy 50% or more of the nest. A blackberry patch, twenty feet in diameter and six feet tall, makes for ideal nesting cover. The female lays from 10 to 15 creamy white eggs lightly splotched with golden brown. The eggs are incubated for 22-23 days. The eggs hatch within a few hours of each other. Newly hatched quail are endearing creatures: tiny balls of down, with oversized feet and big bright eyes. Both parents tend the young, leading them away from the nest. The young are kept warm by their mom for the first two weeks. Untimely rainfall can cause high chick mortality resulting from hypothermia. Although they are members of the Phasianidae family, noted for a polygamous life style, the male California Quail is, from what I have learned, a model husband and father. He is faithful to one mate and plays an active role in the upbringing of his chicks. Dad boldly performs the risky role of sentry. Flying to a high, exposed perch, where death soars down from above, he stands guard, watching for and alerting his family to danger. While, mom quite attentively leads their close-knit band of chicks through the grass and weeds in search of food. Their chicks grow rapidly and after two weeks they are ready to fly short distances. The young remain with their parents through the winter, where family groups come together once again to form coveys.

Male quail directs traffic along one of Coyote Hills trails.

Photo by Bill N. Scoggins, copyright 1998.

The Future of Quail in California

Changes in agricultural practices, including overgrazing, have destroyed the homes where quail once lived. Strained by human development, introductions of non-native predators, and chemicals, many quail populations are declining at a precipitous rate. In some areas, they have been reduced as much as 90% or all together. At Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont, our Quail population, numbering over 60 a decade ago, were wiped out by a proliferation of red foxes and feral cats.

Return of the Quail to Coyote Hills

The East Bay Regional Park District staff, with the assistance of the Birding Parks Partners Volunteers, the Lone-Tree 4-H Club, children in the Fledgling Birders Academy, and donations from private citizens and corporations are helping to return the "Wild Cries') of the State Bird to the park. With the quail's high breeding potential, and our efforts to reestablish and create a "quail friendly environment", we should reach this goal by the year 2000.

Like the warm glow of a candle flame flickering, the quail presence adds warmth and brilliance to our lives. And just as a candle can be blown out, leaving luminous darkness and chilling cold, so it is when we lose any of our splendid species. I encourage you to bring your family and friends out into the park to see the Light by watching our little friends with the bobbing topknots slipping through dense cover, or listening to their melodious "WILD CRIES".

Looking forward to seeing you out on the trail,

Dave Riensche, Naturalist, Coyote Hills Regional Park

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Reprinted from the Bird News by permission of Dave Riensche.

The Bird News is published by the Interpretive Division of the East Bay Regional Park District. The Park District is a two county special district with over 80,000 acres of park land in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. The District is chartered to preserve open space and to provide educational and recreational opportunities for area residents. For information concerning other naturalist programs, please call (510) 635-0135, or to add your name to our mailing list, call (510) 796-0663.

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Books worth reading:

The Ohone Way: Indian life in the San Francisco-Monterey Bay Area by Malcolm Margolin. Heyday Books, P. O. Box 9145, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA.

The California Quail by A. Starker Leopold. University of California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley CA 94720 USA.

Click here for Research on California Quail

Quail Unlimited

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