Regal Quail
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Regal
Quail, Callipepla
regina L 24-28 cm, WS 33-38 cm, Family:
Odontophoridae
IUCN Status: Least
Concern (LC)
Description:
Small
and plump chicken-like bird with round body, short legs, and a small head. Upperparts
gray to brown overall with reddish back. Underparts intricately patterned in
white spots with black lining. Long white feathers with black borders drape
over the lower flanks. Head is patterned with reddish throat outlined in black
and bold white stripes. Two to four distinct, long and straight orange plume
feathers extend from the front of the crown, usually held erect. Females are similar
to males but with duller coloration and significantly shorter crest plume.
Juveniles are like other gallinaceous chicks and heavily camouflaged. 
Field Guide Reference
Voice:
Very
vocal. Main call is a high-pitched, descending “cow-ow” cry, lasting
about 2 seconds, that individuals use to locate other birds. When foraging with
the covey, birds with emit near constant chip calls and various clucks.
When alarmed or warning the covey, birds will use sharp pit-pit-pit-pit calls,
and wingbeats are loud when taking off which can surprise nearby observers.
Range and Habitat:
Common
east of the Paramounts, normally at elevations below 6,000 feet, but
occasionally may be seen at high elevations in the Morning mountains. West of
the Paramounts they are common in the Twin River basin up to 3,000 feet, but
may be found at low elevations throughout the Western Range. A separate, small
population can be found, though elusive, on the southwestern Tower Peninsula
even at high elevations. They prefer more arid and open areas including
grassland, shrubland, chaparral, and savannah, but may use more wooded areas
like forests, especially when meadows, fire scars, or breaks in the canopy are
common. They can often be found in burned areas, clear cuts and other logging
areas, as well as pastures, orchards, crop fields, and other agricultural or
rural areas. They also are common in heavily developed areas like suburban or
even urban neighborhoods, parks, and other green spaces. High elevation birds
are mostly seen in alpine meadows, sparse krummholz forest, and scrubland above
the tree line.
Discussion:
The
Regal Quail is the smallest gallinaceous bird native to Novasola, smaller even
than the Novasola Ptarmigan and about the size of a turtle dove. It is also one
of the most common, at least within its range. Its strange, nasally crow call,
round shape, exclamation point shaped crest, and general goofy attitude combine
to make the Regal Quail one of the silliest birds on the island, and one of the
most charismatic. Watching quail run along the ground at full speed is
especially humorous to many, as they move their tiny legs with startling speed
but seemingly struggle to keep their oversized bodies balanced atop them and
teeter back and forth as the quail zig-zag. Quails are popular on the island for
these reasons and featured prominently in local art and culture. They are also
popular among sportsmen and hunters. Not only is the quail hunting season one of
the longest and least restrictive in bag limits of any native species, quail
are also renowned for their taste. They are the second-most hunted bird on the
island, waterfowl and upland gamebirds alike, behind only the Turkey-pheasant.
Regal
Quail are highly social, and for most of the year are usually found in groups
called coveys. Coveys can be quite large, up to 100 individuals and rarely
fewer than ten. Coveys are composed of multiple family groups, including mated
pairs and many of their offspring. Coveys will separate in the spring for the
breeding season, when females will build nests hidden under vegetation. A
normal clutch may include up to 20 eggs, and hatch after 18 days of incubation.
Chicks are precocial and females will spend about a week with the brood alone
before reconnecting with a covey, often the same birds, which acts as a
communal brood wherein most adults birds, male and female alike, cooperate to
protect all the chicks. In productive food years females may lay two clutches.
Females may also lay eggs in nests of other females, and sometimes as many as
four females may lay eggs in the same nest, resulting in apparent clutches of 40+
eggs. During these occasions many of the eggs will likely not hatch.
Quail
are residents year-round and groups may move about nomadically within a
relatively constricted range, averaging around 20 square miles during the
brooding period and 50 square miles otherwise. They travel while foraging and
may stay in one area as long as food is abundant. Quail mostly forage on the
ground, but may occasionally be seen foraging in trees. Their preferred diet
includes mainly seeds and nuts, with leaves, buds, flowers, berries and other
fruit, and invertebrates to supplement. They will commonly visit bird feeders,
backyard gardens, and crop areas. They also will often be seen foraging along
roadsides, eating the many bugs and roadside plants, but also swallowing gravel
and taking dust baths. Quail are vocal when in groups, especially during
foraging. Often at least one member of the group will spend some time on the
lookout for predators and will warn the flock if one is spotted. When alarmed, quail
will cry out and run for dense cover and will flush to the air when
particularly startled.
Regal
Quail get their name from the golden-orange plume extending from their
foreheads, which early settlers thought looked like a crown or military plume. Settlers,
entertained by the quail, quickly attempted to domesticate the birds for meat
and companion animals, and regal quail are still raised on farms across eastern
Novasola, though this is now uncommon. They are also found occasionally in
farms outside Novasola, especially in the US. Indigenous cultures across the
quail’s range hunted the birds for meat, and some prairie tribes relied heavily
on quail for food. Quail plumes, and their bold flank feathers, were also prized by many groups for use in decoration.
In the Asayeeyee language the bird is called tsʼatsʼéesheidí, which
roughly translates to “plump bird with the antler” or “horned fowl”.
Given
their commonness, comfort with human development, and frequent vocalizations,
Regal Quail can be relatively easy to observe. However, they are ground birds
that prefer to be in or near dense cover like shrubs and tall grasses, so the
best ways to see them are to approach cautiously or watch for sentry birds
exposed on shrub tops or branches. Regal Quail were already well known on
Novasola by the 1900s and the NRC expeditions, and even known on the mainland
through recent domestication exports. As such, Richard Reichwald wrote
relatively little about them during the expeditions themselves, despite surely
encountering great numbers of them.
“The
Regal Quail is among the most sociable of Novasola's game birds. Families and
neighboring broods frequently combine into wandering companies, sometimes
numbering fifty individuals or more. Such assemblages move through the scrub in
gentle procession, conversing continually in soft whistles and pips. So close
are their associations that should one bird become separated, it falls into
apparent distress and calls incessantly until reunited with its companions. The
cocks occasionally ascended stones or low branches from which they delivered a distinct
and familiar cry.
With
gray and buff feathers, finely barred and mottled, the Quail mimics far better
than one might expect the pebbled soils and varied forbs and grasses of the
savannah. The cock and hen differ little in attire, though the former bears a
darker face and a more developed crest, a jaunty tuft of feathers perpetually
erect suggestive of a military plume denoting great rank. Both birds have extravagant draping feathers to their sides, which in some individuals may hang nearly to the ground.
…
Visitors
to the Fastwaters will be struck by the amiable character of these birds. The
Quail possess a temperament much like domestic fowl, and indeed are often kept in
gardens much the same. Whether in pasture or the wild chaparral, they are
content simply to wander their shrubland kingdom in perpetual companionship.
While an approaching man might flush the birds into the nearby foliage, they
will almost immediately resume their activities there, albeit hidden. Listen
for their chatter, or look to the taller shrubs to spot their sentries.” – Manual
of Novasolan Birds, 1914
“One
hears them first: a soft piping among the sage and grasses, hardly louder than
the rustle of leaves. Then, one by one, the birds appear from every direction
until an entire company has materialized where moments before the hillside
seemed empty. Silly creatures, they appear to us as soft, plump, and wholly unserious,
but undoubtedly see themselves with great importance. Quail proceed with utmost
seriousness, tiny heads bobbing and little crests held proudly aloft, each bird
attentive to the affairs of its neighbors. They travel in regiments, scouting
the land in loose formation. They do not possess the grandeur of pheasants nor
the mystery of the thrushes. Rather, to watch them wander the scrub in their tight
companies is to witness a sort of domestic brotherhood uncommon among wild
creatures.
There
is also an irresistible tenderness in their character. When the covey
eventually melts back into the brush, leaving the hillside silent once more, I
invariably feel as though a party of old friends has departed my company.
Nonetheless I do enjoy giving them a good fright from time to time, in so doing
causing them to run along the ground or across the road with an awkwardness I
cannot but laugh to witness.” – Native Birds of Novasola, 1912