Gambel’s Quail
Callipepla gambelii
eBird gives this description for the Gambel’s Quail: Small and rotund with obvious teardrop-shaped plumes protruding from forehead. Looks gray and brown at a distance; look for buffy belly with a black patch. Males have black face and longer, more curled crest than females. Usually seen in flocks running on the ground in deserts, often close to dense thickets for cover. Well-accustomed to humans in many areas; a frequent visitor to feeders. Listen for loud wailing calls and various clucks and chuckles. Separated from similar California Quail by range; also note Gambel’s lacks scaly pattern on belly and has brighter chestnut-colored crown and sides. All About Birds adds this descriptive information about the Gambel’s Quail: Gambel’s Quail are gregarious birds of the desert Southwest, where coveys gather along brushy washes and cactus-studded arroyos to feed. Males and females both sport a bobbing black topknot of feathers. The male’s prominent black belly patch distinguishes it from the similar California Quail. This ground-hugging desert dweller would rather run than fly—look for these tubby birds running between cover or posting a lookout on low shrubs.
I saw my first pair of this bird on the morning of May 21, 2021, at the Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, Arizona. I spotted them shortly after I entered the preserve, but didn’t get a very long look at them as they soon scurried into the bushes. To the my blog of the trip that includes my watching this bird, look here.
“Cool Facts” About the Gambel’s Quail From All About Birds:
- Birders in Hawaii may catch a glimpse of Gambel’s Quail on the slopes of Mauna Kea volcano. The Hawaii Division of Fish and Game introduced this popular game bird (mostly from game farms) to all of the main Hawaiian Islands in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Today a few remain on the Big Island, as well as on Lanai and tiny Kaho’olawe.
- Gambel’s Quail are part of the “scaled quail” complex, which also includes California Quail, Scaled Quail, and the Elegant Quail of northwest Mexico. The species hybridize in captivity and in the wild; you can find Gambel’s x California Quail hybrids where their ranges overlap in southeast California.
- Like many desert-dwelling species, Gambel’s Quail populations undergo a “boom-and-bust” cycle. A year with ample winter-spring rainfall that generates lots of green vegetation will yield larger clutches and an abundance of chicks. Dry winters mean less food and lower productivity.
- Just before her eggs hatch, the female Gambel’s Quail calls to the chicks, who cheep to each other from inside the eggs. The eggs hatch in synchrony, with the chick cutting a neat hole in the largest part of the shell and leaving an intact piece of membrane to serve as a “hinge” — the chick pushes on the shell and opens the “door” that it has created.