the ANIMAL clients american kestrel falcon bald eagle beaver big brown bat barn owl black redstart black swallowtail butterfly bobcat california quail california sea-lion california slender salamander common frog common swift eastern mud turtle eastern tiger salamander edward's bumblebee european grass snake european kingfisher green frog hedgehog kestrel mason bee northern flying squirrel northwestern garter snake olive-sided flycatcher opossum peregrine falcon peregrine falcon (UK) purple martin red admiral butterfly snail-eating ground beetle house sparrow stag beetle tree swallow vaux's swift white breasted nuthatch wood duck grey heron

ANIMAL ESTATE client 4.2: California Quail

FOR ANIMAL ESTATES 4.0: SAN FRANCISCO

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Callipepla californica

ANIMAL PROFILE: The California quail, California's state bird since 1931, is a 9-11 inch hen-like bird with a distinctive teardrop-shaped head plume called a top-knot. Their plump bodies vary from grayish to brown with scaly markings on the lower breast and abdomen. Males are particularly elegant with a black throat, chestnut patch on the belly, a bluish gray breast, white speckles on its flanks, and a white stripe on the forehead and around the neckline.

Females have a smaller top-knot and lack the male's distinctive facial markings and black throat. Her crest is dark brown and her body is brown or gray with white speckles on the chest and belly. The marked sexual dimorphism is believed to play an important part in breeding displays. Juveniles resemble the female, but have shorter and lighter colored crests.

As ground dwelling birds, their short and powerful legs are well adapted for terrestrial locomotion, although the males spend much time off the ground in bushes, trees, and on manmade structures, especially when calling. They can fly rapidly, but only for short distances. When alarmed they prefer to run, flying only as a last resort.

California quail are generalists and opportunists, so food intake varies by location and season. Their main food items are seeds produced by various species of broad-leafed annual plants, especially legumes. Quail also eat leafy materials, acorns, fruits and berries, crop residues, and some insects.

During the fall and winter, California quail are highly gregarious birds, gathering into groups, called coveys. In most situations, covey size averages about 50 birds, but under intensive management and protection, coveys can get as large as 1000 birds. In the covey, the quail tend to imitate one another and exhibit cooperative behavior. For example, when one bird finds a good supply of food it often calls the others to it. Likewise, when a member of the covey perceives danger it will warn the group with the appropriate call. California quail communicate with 14 different calls. This includes courtship, re-grouping, feeding, and warning calls. The most frequently heard location call has been described as "cu-ca-cow" or "chi-ca-go."

At the start of nesting season in early spring the coveys break up, as quail pairs spread themselves out into different habitat areas to nest and rear their young. At the end of summer each new quail family rejoins the others to form a new covey where they will remain until the next breeding season.

California quail are monogamous, but usually pair up with new mates each spring. Females build their nests on the ground, well hidden under a bush or a brush pile. While the female feeds or constructs the nest, the male perches conspicuously above her where he can observe any potential threat to his mate. He stands motionless, sending out notes of either reassurance or warning.

Females lay 12-16 spotted cream-colored eggs and incubate them for 20-23 days and lay a second clutch on occasion. Once the chicks are hatched, both parents tend to the young. Chicks are precocious, feeding on their own shortly after hatching and the male acts as guardian while the young birds forage. The adult male tends to lose weight during this period, spending more time on the alert rather than feeding.

The chicks grow rapidly, initially fledging at about two weeks of age and completing their juvenile plumage by about 11 weeks. By the age of 21 to 23 weeks all of the juvenile flight feathers except for the outer two are replaced by adult-like plumage. Chicks are capable of short flights by the time they are a little over two weeks of age and are fully mature and capable of breeding at the age of ten months.

California quail are short lived with high mortality and high reproductive rates. The number of quail in a population is constantly undergoing change. The average rate of mortality is 74 percent. Mortality is highest in the first year of life. Only one bird in several thousand will live to be five years old.

RANGE: The California Quail can be found in the Pacific coast region of the United States. Its original range stretched from Baja California to a small portion of Western Nevada and the southern counties of Oregon.

HABITAT: California quail are best adapted to semiarid environments, ranging from sea level to 4000 feet and occasionally up to 8500 feet or higher. As long as there is abundant food, ground cover, and a dependable water source, quail are able to live in a variety of habitats including open woodlands, brushy foothills, desert washes, forest edge, chaparral, stream valleys, agricultural lands, and suburb areas. Cover is needed for roosting, resting, nesting, escaping from predators, and for protection from the weather.

HOME CONSTRUCTION: Ground nesters, California Quail usually find a spot under a shrub or brush-pile or next to a log or other cover where they build a shallow depression lined with grasses and leaves. Sometimes they nest above ground, on a broken branch or in the old nest of another bird.

THREATS: In April 1999, California quail were included on the National Audubon Society's list of threatened bird species. 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. In the summer of that year, in response to dwindling populations of California quail in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, the Golden Gate Audubon Society launched its "Save the Quail" campaign. The main causes of the birds' decline include habitat destruction and feral cats. With about 1,200 quail in the park at the turn of the century, the population declined to 12 in 1999. Hopkins estimated that the species would become extinct within the city in the next few years.

Saving the quail has become a citywide effort. In July 2000, the California quail was designated San Francisco's official city bird, illustrating the city's commitment to protecting and restoring quail habitat.

INTERESTING FACTS: The California Quail digests vegetation with the help of protozoans in its intestine. Chicks acquire the protozoans by pecking at the feces of adults. / Despite living in arid environments, the California Quail needs drinking water during periods of sustained heat. During cooler weather, it can get enough moisture from eating insects and succulent vegetation. / For Native Americans the California quail were highly esteemed as a source of food, and the "top knot" was used for decoration on clothing. / A group of quails has many collective nouns, including "a battery of quails", "a drift of quails", "a flush of quails", "a rout of quails", and a "shake of quails." / On about December 5, 1792, Archibald Menzies obtained a California quail and a California condor at Monterey, California. (The condor was feeding on a beached whale, along with several grizzly bears.) He sent both birds to England, where they were the first two California birds to be given scientific names. Incidentally, the quail and the condor were also the two candidates for California's official state bird.

HOW TO ATTRACT THE CALIFORNIA QUAIL TO YOUR GARDEN

The California Quail feeds on the ground near the cover of brush. They like areas of bare dirt for dust baths. They flap around in the dust to remove parasites. They like open areas to feed where they can see predators.

They do not like grass as it obscures their view. A male usually perches on a nearby shrub as the rest of the covey feeds. He signals danger to the others. They like to eat Lupine seeds. Cats are very destructive to Quail. As Quail nest on the ground, they are especially vulnerable to cats.

REFERENCE SITES:

Animal Diversity Web

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Callipepla_californica.html

All About Birds

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/California_Quail_dtl.html

The San Francisco State University Department of   Geography

http://bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/courses/Fall00Projects/Quail.html

Bird Web

http://birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=126

WhatBird.com

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/90/overview/California_Quail.aspx

GeoSymbols

http://www.geosymbols.org/World/California/Bird/

PRBO Conservation Science: Conservation of the California Quail

http://www.prbo.org/cms/106

Las Pilitas

http://www.laspilitas.com/California_birds/Quail/California_Quail_in_your_garden.htm

ESSAY

by Alan S. Hopkins, Past President , Golden Gate Audubon Society, for the Animal Estates 4.0 Field Guide

A Brief History of the California Quail, Callipepla californica

"Of all the birds native to California, none is more universally enjoyed and appreciated than the California Quail" wrote A. Starker Leopold in The California Quail . A striking chicken-like bird, the first California Quail known to science were birds collected in 1792 by British botanist Archibald Menzies in Monterey California during his voyage aboard the Discovery. Menzies' specimens were described in the British Museum as "This curious bird is native to California". Long before European explorers and settlers "discovered" the species, quail were greatly appreciated by California's Native Americans. Anthropologist Samuel A. Barrett stated "Perhaps no other kind of bird was more esteemed as a food than the quail. Certainly no other land bird was more used". Not only were the quail a source of food but the birds distinctive "top-knot" plumes were used for decorating basketry and clothing. The settlers also used quail as a food source, Walter R. Welch recounts "In 1885, I saw many quail exposed and offered for sale at grocery stores and butcher shops on Third Street, San Francisco, for 50 cents per dozen". While across town in the newly created Golden Gate Park "More than fifteen hundred quail were estimated to be in the park..." wrote Raymond H. Clary in The Making of Golden Gate Park.

A Personal History With Quail

When I moved to San Francisco in the early '70's the Quail were just as Florence Merriam Bailey had described them in 1902 in the Handbook of Birds of the Western State : "The brushy parts of Golden Gate Park ... abound with quail, and from benches one can watch the squads of plump hen-like creatures..." In the 70's quail were so ubiquitous in the City's parks and backyards that birdwatchers didn't take much notice of them. As a young birder I was far more interested in the flocks of colorful migratory birds that passed through parks, and frankly, the quail were a little too cute for my taste. In 1983 Golden Gate Audubon organized the first annual San Francisco Christmas Bird Count and we began to collect city-wide data on bird distribution. In 1992 a number of us started to census San Francisco's breeding bird activity for the San Francisco Breeding Bird Atlas. With the data gathered, it became alarmingly clear that the City's once abundant quail were about to disappear.

To many of us one of the major causes for the quail's decline was due to the high number of feral cats living in the parks. In 1992 Glen Martin wrote an article that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle " Feral cats blamed for declines in Golden Gate Park songbirds ". The article quoted the Chairman of Ornithology Department California Academy of Sciences Louis Baptista, post-doctoral fellow with the National Sciences Foundation Pepper Trail, Point Reyes Bird Observatory biologist Rich Stallcup and myself. Our comments on the declining quail, White-crowned Sparrows, and Brush Rabbits caused quite a commotion. We were accused of promoting a "round-up and kill" campaign against the cats. This was the beginning of a long battle between conservation groups such as Audubon who believed that the quail should be protected and groups like the San Francisco SPCA who believed that their "No Kill" policy for feral cats was more important than the well being of quail and other small animals in the City. It was at about this time I realized if I wanted to protect the quail it was necessary to know as much about them as possible and to document their interactions in our local environment. As a birdwatcher I already knew a good deal about California Quail: The males had a black face bordered by white stripes, a chestnut crown and a distinctive black comma-like plume called a topknot. The females lacked the distinctive facial markings and the topknot was less pronounced. In the fall and winter quail gather in large social groups called coveys where they feed primarily on seeds and leafy plant sprouts. During the spring the coveys break-up, as individual males and females pair-up and search up to eleven miles for nesting sites. During the spring the quail's distinctive "Cu-ca-cow" call can frequently be heard from a male sentry perched atop a bush or fence post. Quail nest on the ground and lay 12 to 16 eggs. At hatching the walnut-sized chicks scurry about following the adults until they reach the size of adults in 16 weeks. My knowledge of quail was greatly expanded by A. Starker Leopold's definitive book The California Quail . Because quail are game birds, a considerable amount of research has been done to protect and enhance the populations and Leopold's book was an excellent distilment of these studies. The California Quail makes it clear that, even more than controlling predators, ". . . quail populations can be increased by the creative use of land management practices". It seemed the key to protecting the quail was to create more quail habitat.