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Project Noah Nature School
Callipepla californica
Small, roundish eggs about 1 inch wide and 1.3 inches long. They vary from light creme to medium brown. All have varying amounts and sizes of spots from light to dark brown. The eggs are in a nest that's about 7 inches across. It's made with grasses, leaves and feathers. A normal sized clutch is 12-16 eggs. This nest has 19 eggs.
Under native Deer Grass, on the ground in Oak Woodland/Sage Scrub habitat. The location is up against the house so the quail is protected and out of sight from multiple sides. This species is found from Baja California to British Columbia.
The female quail will lay up to two clutches a year if the first one isn't successful. Sadly, an outdoor domestic cat found the nest a few days after these photo's were taken and killed the hen. Please keep cats indoors as they kill billions of native birds every year.
Spotted on May 21, 2019
Submitted on May 22, 2019
2 Comments
They are! Thanks for the comment, Mauna :-)
How lovely!