Breeding Location:
Desert
Breeding Type:
Monogamous, Gregarious.
Breeding Population:
Egg Color:
Buff with brown spots
Number of Eggs:
9 - 14
Incubation Days:
21 - 24
Egg Incubator:
Female
Nest Material:
Lined with grasses, sticks, and feathers.
Migration:
Nonmigratory
Overview
Gambel's Quail: Medium quail, gray upperparts and breast, scaled gray nape, black patch on center of abdomen, black head plume, white-bordered black face, cinnamon-brown crown, buff underparts, flanks streaked dark chestnut-brown and white. Alternates several stiff wing beats with short glides.
Range and Habitat
Gambel's Quail: Resident in the Sonoran desert of Arizona and Mexico, extending into southern New Mexico, up and down the Rio Grande, up the Colorado River drainage into Utah’s canyon country, and west to California and southern Nevada. Preferred habitats include brushy and thorny vegetation of southwestern deserts.
Breeding and Nesting
Gambel's Quail: Nine to fourteen brown spotted, buff eggs are laid in a ground scrape lined with grass, sticks, and feathers. Incubation ranges from 21 to 24 days and is carried out by the female.
Foraging and Feeding
Gambel's Quail: Eats mainly seeds and forbs, but also insects, spiders, and small reptiles; forages on the ground.
Readily Eats
Cracked Corn
Vocalization
Gambel's Quail: Makes low grunting sounds similar to a piglet. Also a melancholy "quoit" or "oit" and loud, grating four-note "chi-CA-go-go."
Similar Species
Gambel's Quail: California Quail lacks black patch on abdomen, has dark brown crown black, prominently speckled white nape and sides of neck, and dull brown flanks.
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