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Underground quail? (1 Viewer)

Z

zippetydude

Member
I came across a sandy patch along the Pacific Crest Trail at elevation 5000' along the side of Mt. San Jacinto in southern California as I was hiking with some friends. We stopped to take a drink.

Suddenly out of a hole in the ground by our feet little tiny quail started popping up and darting off in a serpentine fashion. Maybe 7 or 8 of them did this over a 30 second period, then the mother ran in a big circle around us, perhaps to investigate what was going on.

I had never heard of quail living underground before. Honestly, we were laughing so hard that it was hard to keep track of how many tiny quail darting about, so I'm not sure about the number.

Is it common for quail to hide in holes like this?

z
 
hi,
I found this reference

The Nature of Friendship

books.google.deMaryjo Koch - 2009 - 80 Seiten - Vorschau
California Quail Chicks California Quails are very sociable birds that often gather in small flocks known as coveys. ... have to spend much of their time burrowed underground to escape predators and extreme desert......

Andy
 
For what it's worth, I found no mention of this behavior for Ca. Quail in the BNA account. Thought it possible that at the site and elevation mention that it could have been Mt. Quail and in the BNA account it says "Upon scattering, chicks dart underneath objects (leaves, logs, into rock crevices) ..."
 
Hi Steve, I searched Cornell and other sources and found no mention of this behavior either. The only thing I found was a paper on underground water tanks, but no other reference to any quail using underground burrows. I looked California and Mountain Quail.
Just as I was giving up I found the above refence in what appears to be a childrens book about nature, the title is The Nature of Friendship by Maryjo Koch. Strange that this behavior is not mentioned in other more well known sources/references.

Andy
 
Hi Andy,

It may be that there's anecdotal noting of the behavior that would not make into BNA accounts. I know that most such statements would require a citation and given that the behavior may be rare or unstudied there would be no systematic studies. Who knows?
 
I agree with you, but it throws new info into the pot, the description from the op and the book reference to coroborate (spelling?) it. Could make an interesting study if you want an undergrad out your hair;)

Andy
 
Steve Schoech said:
For what it's worth, I found no mention of this behavior for Ca. Quail in the BNA account.
Click to expand...

"For what its worth" indeed. Not having information on even quite common pieces of avian behavior is all too typical of BNA, I'm afraid, stemming from its policy (or at least usual practice) of eschewing "anecdotal" evidence, i.e. anything that hasn't been documented in a formal study of some sort--journal article, MA or Ph.D thesis, whatever. Example. Brewer's Blackbirds frequent parking lots so commonly here in Nevada & elsewhere in the west that that's what many non-birders refer to them as, "parking lot birds". Yet there's not even a mention of this extremely characteristic behavior in the BNA-account (or wasn't last time I checked). Another example is the habit many species of birds have (including Brewer's Blackbirds again) of feeding on smashed insects on the grills of cars & trucks. Again, little or no mention of this in the BNA accounts of the species concerned.

I'm a great fan of BNA-online, & have subscribed to it from the beginning, but it would be much improved (as well as much more fun to read) if there were a "Notes & Comments" section for "anecdotal" information about poorly documented aspects of avian behavior, ideally including contributions from non-professional readers. Pie in the sky at this stage, I suppose, since to be useful such a feature would have to be heavily edited & this would doubtless cost too much time & money to be practical.

Oops, sorry, I guess I've rather veered OT here.
 
Hi fugl,
I expect your glad to get that of your chest;) you probably feeling a whole lot better for it.

Andy
 
fugl said:
"For what its worth" indeed. Not having information on even quite common pieces of avian behavior is all too typical of BNA, I'm afraid, stemming from its policy (or at least usual practice) of eschewing "anecdotal" evidence, i.e. anything that hasn't been documented in a formal study of some sort--journal article, MA or Ph.D thesis, whatever. Example. Brewer's Blackbirds frequent parking lots so commonly here in Nevada & elsewhere in the west that that's what many non-birders refer to them as, "parking lot birds". Yet there's not even a mention of this extremely characteristic behavior in the BNA-account (or wasn't last time I checked). Another example is the habit many species of birds have (including Brewer's Blackbirds again) of feeding on smashed insects on the grills of cars & trucks. Again, little or no mention of this in the BNA accounts of the species concerned.

I'm a great fan of BNA-online, & have subscribed to it from the beginning, but it would be much improved (as well as much more fun to read) if there were a "Notes & Comments" section for "anecdotal" information about poorly documented aspects of avian behavior, ideally including contributions from non-professional readers. Pie in the sky at this stage, I suppose, since to be useful such a feature would have to be heavily edited & this would doubtless cost too much time & money to be practical.

Oops, sorry, I guess I've rather veered OT here.
Click to expand...

Our opus pages have a little of what you want, and I just added the following to the behavior section of Brewer's Blackbird with reference to this thread: In some areas very common in parking lots, where it will each insects off the front of parked cars.

Niels
 
njlarsen said:
Our opus pages have a little of what you want, and I just added the following to the behavior section of Brewer's Blackbird with reference to this thread: In some areas very common in parking lots, where it will each insects off the front of parked cars.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reminder, Niels. I've never gotten in the habit of consulting opus in these matters, something I need to change.
 
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