During the breeding season, males utter the agonistic 'squill' and will often interrupt their social mate's 'chicago' call with a 'squill,' a possible form of antiphonal calling. They have a variety of vocalizations including the social 'chicago' call, contact 'pips' and warning 'pips'. In good years, females will lay more than one clutch, leaving the hatched young with the associated male and laying a new clutch, often with a different associated male. Males associated with families are not always the genetic fathers. Often, families group together, into multifamily 'communal broods' which include at least two females, multiple males and many offspring. Once hatched, the young associate with both adults. The female usually lays approximately 12 eggs. The nest is a shallow scrape lined with vegetation on the ground beneath a shrub or other cover. Their breeding habitat is shrubby areas and open woodlands in western North America. Breeding Ī chick in Wellington, New Zealand (introduced species) Quail can initiate a “flush” mechanism to escape.

Also, because quail birds rarely fly, their evasive behavior did not always involve winged flight, thus escaping that included walking away from such danger. Given a choice, they will normally escape on foot. If startled, these birds explode into short rapid flight, called 'flushing'. Their diet consists mainly of seeds and leaves, but they also eat some berries and insects for example, Toyon berries are a common food source. They can sometimes be seen feeding at the sides of roads. These birds forage on the ground, often scratching at the soil. They were originally found mainly in the southwestern United States but they have been introduced into other areas including British Columbia, Hawaii, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, South Africa, New Zealand, and to Norfolk Island and King Island in Australia. Although this bird coexists well at the edges of urban areas, it is declining in some areas as human populations increase. An ornithologist is able to detect the presence of quail in an area by spotting the circular indentations left behind in the soft dirt, some 7–15 cm (2.8–5.9 in) in diameter. They seem to prefer sunny places in which to create these dust baths. They then wriggle about in the indentations they have created, flapping their wings and ruffling their feathers, causing dust to rise in the air. A group of quail will select an area where the ground has been newly turned or is soft, and using their underbellies, will burrow downward into the soil some one to two inches. One of their daily communal activities is a dust bath.

The California quail is a highly sociable bird that often gathers in small flocks known as 'coveys'. plumbea ( Grinnell, 1926) – San Quintin California quail – San Diego County to southern Baja California orecta ( Oberholser, 1932) – Warner Valley quail – Warner Valley in Oregon to extreme northern California

catalinensis ( Grinnell, 1906) – Santa Catalina quail – Santa Catalina Island (off southern California) canfieldae ( Van Rossem, 1939) – Owen Valley quail – Owens Valley of east central California californica ( Shaw, 1798) – northern Oregon and western Nevada to southern California and Coronado Islands brunnescens ( Ridgway, 1884) – extreme northern coastal California to southern Santa Cruz County achrustera ( Peters, 1923) – San Lucas California quail – southern Baja California

Quail hill