California Quail - Ross Feldner As you may have guessed, unless you live near the Pacific Ocean, you probably won’t see this handsome bird. California Quails are very sociable birds that gather in small flocks. They take a daily communal dust bath, wriggling into indentations they create, flapping their wings to make a mini dust storm. They are ground foragers, scratching at the soil looking for seeds and leaves. Berries, snails and caterpillars are also common food sources. If startled, California Quails will explode into short, rapid flight known as “flushing.” The nest is a shallow scrape lined with vegetation on the ground beneath a shrub or other cover. Females will usually lay 12 eggs and can lay as many as 28 in one sitting! Families often group together into multifamily "communal broods" which include at least two females, multiple males and many offspring. Males associated with families are not always the genetic fathers. California Quails have a variety of calls that include a social call, a contact call and a warning call. | |
