Audubon shows the female (in front) investigating prey, although the birds usually eat seeds and foliage.
These occasional hunters are themselves hunted and their popularity led to their designation in 1931 as the California state bird.
The birds had long been a popular menu item. In San Franciso in 1881-82, for example, quail-on-toast went for thirty cents. More than 375,000 birds were shipped in from southern California that year, bringing hunters $32,000, or about a dollar per dozen. Although considered hardy and adaptable, the birds were subject to overhunting, and by 1885 hunting them was no longer profitable. Populations recovered, hunting has continued, some areas are artificially stocked, and today the bag limit within the state is 10 birds.
One measure of their adaptability is their ability to produce small brood during drought years, reducing the risk of rearing young who will eventually starve (See below: Quail Eggs and Clover and Wheye drawing after Audubon).
Campus LocationsUncommon 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.
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feathers either the boat-shaped basket and
Pomo NA7875; the Miwok basket NA2070
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These birds have been in the area XXXXXX. They were a resource to the local Native Americans. By the 1960s populations of the generally widespread and common birds had declined, and were heading toward local extinctions (e.g., San Francisco).
In 1999, they were included on the National Audubon Society’s list of threatened bird species and, hoping to counter habitat loss and predation by feral cats the Golden Gate Audubon Society launched its “Save the Quail” campaign in Golden Gate Park, where the population dropped to 12 from about 1,200 at the turn of the century. The Presidio has San Francisco's largest population, where eight “Quail in Area, Drive Carefully” road signs have been installed, and monitoring projects and habitat restoration activities are on-going. Within a year quail protection expanded across the city and the California quail was designated San Francisco’s official city bird. Meanwhile, across the state, by the late 1980s hunters were taking 2 million birds annually,
Gutierrez, 1979-80; Gutierrez et al., 1983; Leopold, 1977; Zink et al., 1987.
for photos and text, see 10000 birds
DW drawing of California Quail near Jasper Ridge Over Time