California Quail

Overview

California Quail: Medium quail with distinctive, curled black head plume and white-bordered black throat. Breast is gray and belly is sharply scaled. The flanks are brown with white streaks and back is olive-brown. Legs and feet are gray. Alternates several stiff, rapid wing beats with short glides.

Range and Habitat

California Quail: Originally resident from southern Oregon south to Baja California, but introduced to the Pacific northwest, Idaho, and other inland states. Preferred habitats include brushy chaparral foothills, live oak canyons, and adjacent deserts and suburbs.

INTERESTING FACTS

It is the state bird of California. Multiple California Quail broods may mix after hatching and are attended by all of the parents of those broods. Adults that engage in communal brooding live longer than adults that do not.
The topknot looks like a single feather, but it is actually a cluster of six overlapping plumes.
A group of quails has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "drift", "flush", "rout", and "shake" of quails.

The California Quail is native to the United States, Mexico and Canada. It is thought to be extinct in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but has been introduced to Chile, Australia and New Zealand. The range of this bird is around 1 million square kilometers and it has a global population nearing 1 million individual birds. At the current time this bird is rated as Least Concern as there are no immediate concerns regarding the range of the population of the California Quail.