California Quail Supersp #9 Callipepla californica Shaw       Field Guide IDs: NG-140; G-90; PW-pl 22; AW-pl 278; AM(I)-296 Nest Location Nest Type Eggs & Mating System Dev. & Parental Care Primary & 2ndary Diet.. Foraging Strategy F I: 18-23 DAYS PRECOCIAL 3 F 12-16 MONOG F: 10 DAYS MF FOLIAGE ACORNS BREEDING: Habitat generalist: chaparral, scrub, brushy and cultivated areas, suburbs, occ open woodland. 1 brood, 2 in exceptionally favorable years. DISPLAYS: Courtship: male bows, fluffs feathers, droops wings and, with tall spread, may rush toward female. Males often fight. NEST: Usu concealed in grass or shrubs or next to log or rock, occ to 10' above ground in bush or tree; shallow, covered depression lined with dead leaves, grass. EGGS: White to creamy, marked with dull browns. 1.2" (31 mm). DIET: Also some fruit; insects, spiders, snails, etc., account for <5% of diet. CONSERVATION: Winter resident. NOTES: Gregarious, forming coveys of up to 200 (rarely to 300+) birds in fall and winter. Male acts as sentry throughout year. Female broods chicks. Remain on ground and run very rapidly, flying as last resort. Roost in dense trees or shrubs, not on ground. STANFORD. NOTES: Uncommon and rapidly declining on campus, this species is now present primarily in southern portions of campus, where it forages in grassy habitats or under oaks and uses dense brush and ornamental plantings for cover. Historically common throughout but now extirpated from many areas, probably due to predation by cats. As recently as the early 1990s, coveys of quail could be found in the Arboretum and around the Oval, but these birds have mostly disappeared. ESSAYS: Quail Eggs and Clover, Precocial and Altricial Young, Flock Defense REFERENCES: Gutierrez, 1979-80; Gutierrez et al., 1983; Leopold, 1977; Zink et al., 1987.