Gambel's Quail

Overview

Gambel's Quail: Medium quail, gray upperparts and breast, scaled gray nape, black patch on center of abdomen, black head plume, white-bordered black face, cinnamon-brown crown, buff underparts, flanks streaked dark chestnut-brown and white. Alternates several stiff wing beats with short glides.

Range and Habitat

Gambel's Quail: Resident in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Mexico, extending into southern New Mexico, up and down the Rio Grande, up the Colorado River drainage into Utah’s canyon country, and west to California and southern Nevada. Preferred habitats include brushy and thorny vegetation of southwestern deserts.

INTERESTING FACTS

Although the Gambel's Quail is adapted to living in a dry, desert environment, it reproduces best in years with adequate rainfall.
They are a non-migratory species and are rarely seen in flight. Any flight is usually short and explosive, with many rapid wingbeats followed by a slow glide to the ground.
This quail was named for William Gambel, the American naturalist and collector.
A group of quails has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "drift", "flush", "rout", and "shake" of quails.

The Gambel's Quail is rated at this time as Least Concern. This rating was previously Lower Risk. The population and range of Gambel's Quail are both sufficient enough at this time to warrant a Least Concern rating. This bird is native to the United States and Mexico. The range of this bird is estimated at around half a million square kilometers. The population of Gambel's Quail is around 2 million individual birds. The population of this bird species is considered to be stable enough at this time that there are not any dangers regarding immediate population decline.