California Quail
Callipepla californica

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Odontophoridae
Genus: Callipepla

Audio for Species

Call
Song

from Macaulay Library

Species Related Links

Additional California Quail Pictures

Description

Length: 8-10.6 in (20.32-27 cm) Weight: 4.9-8.1 oz (140-230 g) Wingspan: 12.6-14.6 in (32-37 cm)

The male has a black, forward-tilting, teardrop-shaped topknot, that is a agglomerate of six cooccuring feathers. A pale raw sienna forehead and a chocolate-brown cap. A black face with a white border. Blackish nape stippled with white spotting. A dark bluish-gray chest and raw sienna belly with darker scaly markings and a chestnut center with brown flanks with white streaks. Blue-brown back and upperwings. A black beak.

The female has short, curved, chocolate-brown, teardrop-shaped crest , and a gray or brown head, chest, back, and upperwings. She has chestnut flanks with white streaks and a pale belly with darker scaly markings. A brown beak.

Habitat, Range, and Feeding

They can be found in coastal sagebrush, chaparral, foothills, backyards with brambles and brush to hide, and the high desert of California and the northwestern United States. They nest in shallow depressions on the ground near vegetation or rocks for protection, but occasionally in trees of bushes up to ten feet off the ground. The nests are lined with stems and grasses. The clutch size is 12 to 16 eggs. that are white to creamy with variable brown splotches.

Their diet consists of mainly seeds, with a few flowers, leaves, and berries. To a much lessor degree they comsume invertebrates such as caterpillers, and mites.