California Quail - Quail Hunting - Upland Hunting
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Description
California Quail are short round game birds with a small heads and a topknot of feathers that droop forward over their foreheads.
The female birds are brown with a scaled pattern of creamy and tan colors on their underbelly. The young birds of both sexes have a similar coloring but with a shorter plume from their foreheads. The adult male quails have a richer gray and brown body, with a similar underbelly, but a black face with white outlines that stand out. The comma-shaped topknot may look like only one feather, but is actually six feathers tightly overlapping. These birds are approximately ten inches long with a wingspan of thirteen inches.
When paired up, the California Quail call each other using alternating calls for the female and male birds. This creates a unique song pattern.
California Quail live in the sagebrush, chaparral, and in the lowland forests of California and the Northwest. These birds avoid the mountains and are sometimes called valley birds. They dont avoid living near humans, so they can be commonly found in peoples yards and city parks. They spend most of their time walking on the ground and will run for cover if startled. If very afraid, they will take off in explosive flight as they dart for cover. They hunt for food by scratching on the ground and picking up what they find. Often, they can be seen alongside roadways pecking at cracked open acorns. They also pull leaves from plants. They mostly eat seeds and leaves.
As game birds, the California Quail is most commonly hunted in California state. Their breeding habits are unique to their region, and so are their hunting seasons, which must be checked locally. Most of their population is based in California, with over seventy percent based in the United States, but some can be found on the west coasts of both Canada and Mexico.
