subject: 7 Interesting Quail Facts [print this page] Quail are small to medium sized birds, which are part of the pheasant family. Quail can be found virtually anywhere but if you want to hang out with them, you would basically need to spend time in woodlands or forest areas. As is the case with any other species, not all quail look alike. The quail facts below will teach you more about these birds.
In Mexico, other members of the quail family exist, such as Bearded Tree Quail, Long-tailed Tree Quail, Elegant Quail, Banded Quail and Wood Quail. All quail prefer to flee from any threat so if you stumble upon their dwelling place, they would explode into fast flight.
Among ground dwelling quail are Mountain Quail, California Quail, Gambel's Quail and Bobwhite Quail. The entire family of odontophoridae is pretty vast so quail can be seen virtually everywhere in the world.
You can recognize a quail by its call because most of them have familiar calls. If you are in California, then you can witness a community dust bath by quail; it is their pastime activity. In Tennessee, the bob white is the game bird of choice. But some other species of quail are on the verge of extinction, like the Gorgeted Wood.
Here are some interesting quail facts:
1. There are about 15 species of quail in the world. Six species can be found in the US; Bobwhite Quail, California Quail, Mountain Quail, Gambel's Quail, Scaled Quail, and Mearn's Quail.
2. Quail are solitary birds but sometimes, they will socialize with other quail if they are in a gregarious mood. But during the mating season, they are usually very friendly with each other, as different family groups mingle and form flocks of about a hundred birds. After the mating season, they go back to a solitary lifestyle.
3. Quail are technically omnivores because they normally feed on insects, but they also entertain vegetarian tendencies. They eat everything from vegetation to seeds, fruits, wheat and flowers. But over 90% percent of their diet consists of vegetables and it is supplemented with worms and insects.
4. Quail can start to mate once they have reached two months of age. In order to mate, they have to leave the forest for more open areas like fields in order to congregate with other quail.
5. A lot of people do not know this but pheasants are not native to the US. They first arrived when a judge bythe name of Owen Nickerson shipped 80 Chinese ring neck pheasants to the states and brought them to his home in Oregon.
6. Male quail differ from females in color. In males, the upper body is reddish brown and they have a pale and streaked belly. They have a white stripe right above the eyes and the black area around the throat has a white patch. Females are caramel colored on this part of their bodies.
7. Like many other birds, small quail can only fly for short distances at a time. A bob white can reach flight speed of 20-40 mph but it cannot fly long distances without raising its body temperature. If its temperature gets too high, then it will perish.
