Nature in the City:  |
A male
California quail takes his turn standing guard while his large family
pecks at seeds on the ground. Both sexes have the topknot, but the
females’ is smaller. |
by Sarah Walker, from the February 2006 Newsletter
California Quail are all over Moscow, and people are watching them! When I asked a few Palouse dwellers about their experiences with quail, I got replies right away. Jane Holman, from the hill above Tidyman’s, wrote, “I regularly see flocks in my yard and trees – sometimes 5-10, but last summer when the little guys were with them, there were sometimes 20-30, at least. They are great neighbors!” Charles Swift wrote from near East City Park that a small flock has moved into the neighborhood, and it wasn’t there five years ago. Ashley Martens said she sees them increasingly in yards in town, and last spring, she even saw one or two on rooftops in the Fort Russell area!
From a more rural Palouse setting, Lynne Nelson reported that she sees small groups of quail at her feeders at least three times a day, starting at dawn, and at dusk she sees larger groups of 40-60 birds.
Quail are indeed seen in bign groups, and mostly on the ground. One family might have a dozen or more chicks, then join up with another big family for “communal brooding,” a practical system where all the parents watch out for all the chicks. Still, not all the chicks will survive.
Quail groups are called coveys. While a large covey might call more attention to itself than a smaller group, and be more conspicuous to a predator, grouping up does have advantages for these little six-ounce birds. In quail coveys, the males stand guard. If they take turns, everyone gets more time to search the ground for seeds and insects while someone is always watching for danger. If a cat, dog, raccoon, owl or hawk gets near, a big covey might be able to temporarily confuse a predator by suddenly taking off in all different directions—the “explosive flight” that drives bird hunters crazy. (Hunters are the reason California, or Valley, quail were introduced to Idaho from California).
If the group disperses, a male calls loudly to bring his scattered charges back together. The most familiar quail call is a loud “chi – CA – go,” or as bird guide author and artist David Sibley describes it, “put-WAY-do.” A second familiar sound is a “sharp, spitting ‘spik-wik-wiw.’”
Group living goes on for most of the year, but come spring, quail will leave their groups to mate. Last April, I heard a lone quail calling from a tall willow tree in town, announcing his territory. A pair will scrape a shallow nest on the ground, and produce a dozen or more eggs in late April or May. The chicks will hatch in about two weeks, eyes open, covered with down, even able to race after their parents soon after hatching. Their parents will lead them around and show them food, which the chicks get for themselves. At night, they will all roost together in a shrub or tree, off the ground. The babies will grow stubby little topknots. Later in the summer, there may be a second brood.
If something happens to one of the parents, the other can take over. Lynne Nelson recalled, “Two years ago, we had one clutch of 15, and last year we had a male raise the entire clutch himself (mom disappeared when the clutch was 3-5 days old). He raised six birds from the original 11 – I thought that was pretty good for one parent.”
Single-parenting, communal brooding and roosting, standing guard while family groups eat, running across the highway in a tight line behind a parent—these are behaviors that inspire curiosity in humans. Quail are fun to watch!
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