D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
March 2011
Taking a Gambel
Odds are you've seen the Gambel's quail, decorative bird of the desert.
Story and photos by Jay W. Sharp
To me, the Gambel's quail (Callipepla gambelii) looks as though it has been crafted of porcelain by a master ceramicist. The bird has long drawn the attention of potters, artists, photographers, sculptors and publicists. Its likeness appears, for instance, on the distinctive black and white bowls produced by the Mimbres Mogollon potters in southwestern New Mexico a thousand years ago. Its image turns up in the artwork of books about our deserts; in ceramic tiles and metal cutouts at crafts shows across the Southwest; in photographs in exhibits and publications; and as bronze-sculpted five-foot-high figures (on roller skates!) in a park in Salt Lake City. It even serves as the logo for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
Distinctive Features
With the black inverted teardrop-shaped plume, or "topknot," crowning its head and elegantly styled plumage adorning its body, the Gambel's ranks as the most distinctive of the three quail species we have in southwestern New Mexico. (The other two species are the scaled quail, or, scientifically, Callipepla squamata, and the Montezuma quail, or Cyrtonyx montezumae.)
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A pair of Gambel's quail on a prickly pear-covered rock formation. |
The Gambel's quail's stocky body measures about 10 inches in length, including beak and tail feathers, according to David Allen Sibley in The Sibley Guide to Birds. Its wings span about 14 inches, tip to tip. It weighs about six ounces.
The adult male, according to David E. Brown, Julie C. Hagelin, Mark Taylor and Jill Galloway in Birds of North America Online, "has striking plumage," with "upperparts and breast neutral gray, face boldly patterned black and white, crown cinnamon, abdomen buffy cream with dark chestnut flanks streaked with white, and black patch on center of abdomen." The adult female, by comparison, "has a smaller and shorter topknot, entirely grayish head (lacking black or white facial pattern of male), and buffy abdomen (lacking central black patch of male), and gray feathers are more vermiculated [wavy lined] with buffy white, appearing slightly more brownish overall."
The Gambel's quail has no voice for song, write Brown, Hagelin, Taylor and Galloway, but, irrepressibly gregarious, it has a repertoire of at least 10 different calls, which speak to "feeding relationships, group activities, responses to predators, and reproductive behavior." In perhaps the most familiar example, a Gambel's quail, separated from its mate and covey members, issues a plaintiff ka-KAA-ka-ka call, hoping that it will elicit a responding call so it can relocate and rejoin its fellow birds. At the start of mating season, the male may take a high perch, at the top of a mesquite or a fence post, and produce a tender kaaaa, hoping to attract a lovely female. If romance ensues, the female, and sometimes our urbane male, produce short squeals of delight during copulation.
Range and Habitat
The Gambel's quail, with seven very similar subspecies, has made the Sonoran Desert, from southern Arizona southward into Mexico, the heart of its home range. But it has also taken up residence in much of New Mexico and in parts of California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and western Texas. (For the science-minded, Callipepla gambelii ignoscens is the subspecies that occupies southern New Mexico and western Texas.)
Although it does not defend a territory, it seeks out habitat that answers its particular needs for cover, space, forage and water. In New Mexico, according to the state game and fish department's Larry Kamees, Tim Mitchusson and Mark Gruber in "New Mexico's Quail," the bird typically occupies a "mosaic of various cover types" that occur as a scattering of one- to five-acre plots of mixed desert shrubs, a vegetative overstory and suitable nesting cover. Altogether, a covey may occupy 20 to 94 acres.
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Screwbean mesquite, with beans late summer or early fall, when the shrub's foliage provides cover, and the beans, forage. |
Primarily a ground bird, the quail uses the shrubs — for instance, honey mesquite, screwbean mesquite, shinnery oak, acacia and four-winged saltbush — for protection, roosting and simply loafing. It uses the vegetation overstory — the taller grasses and the forbs (flowering, non-woody plants other than the grasses) — for brood cover and insect food sources. It picks nesting cover — desert bunch grasses, leaf litter, low-growing mesquite limbs and even prickly pear cacti — that offers camouflage and protection.
Like other ground feeders, the adult Gambel's quail forages on a wide diversity of seeds, green vegetation and succulent cacti fruits. Throughout the year, the adult favors, as a staple, the seeds of numerous plants, including, for a few examples, mesquites, acacia and tumbleweeds. From late winter into summer, it seeks out the greening, vitamin-A-rich vegetation of plants such as New Mexico lotus, stickleaf and twinleaf senna, which enhance body conditioning and facilitate nesting success. In late summer and early fall, it feasts on the fruits of the prickly pears and the Christmas cholla. By contrast, the Gambel's quail chicks feed primarily on insects, which provide an ideal mix of protein, energy and water for a growing bird.
The quail will take free water if available and convenient, but otherwise, it can meet its water needs perfectly well from its diet — green vegetation, fruits and insects — plus the occasional dew.
Behavior and Life Cycle
Typically, write Brown, Hagelin, Taylor and Galloway, the Gambel's quail feeds twice each day, in the early morning light and again in the late afternoon and twilight hours. It moves to favored foraging areas often in line, with a prissy businesslike walk. During feeding, a male stands watch for the covey. After the morning feeding, the quail will spend the middle of the day "loafing in a shady wash, dusting, sleeping and taking sand and grit."
A Covey of Quail Facts
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More tolerant of the desert climate than either the scaled or Montezuma quails, the Gambel's reduces its activity level and seeks shade in high summertime temperatures, and it fluffs its body feathers to trap body warmth in cold winter temperatures.
If threatened by a predator, the Gambel's issues a chip-chip-chip alarm signal and dashes, on foot, through thick shrubs and vegetation overstory to escape. Closely pressed, it will take wing, with a whole covey bursting into flight, scattering, each bird traveling perhaps several hundred yards to half a mile. Normally, the only other time the bird flies is to reach an elevated roosting spot or perch or to clear an obstacle.
Come evening, the Gambel's quail typically seeks out roosting spots in dense shrubs, a few inches to some feet above the ground. This contrasts with the scaled or Montezuma quails, which roost on the ground.
At the beginning of the breeding season, in late winter, the Gambel's male initiates courtship, chasing and nudging a potential mate to solicit her attention. Meanwhile, like Tom Sawyer showing off for Becky Thatcher, the male fluffs his flank feathers, fans his tail feathers, extends his legs, bows his head, bobs his plume, displays his ornamental plumage, and croons wit-wut, wit-wut, wit-wut. If he is challenged by another male, the two may, note Brown, Hagelin, Taylor and Galloway, "fly at each other and roll on the ground in an attempt to peck at each other's skulls."
After all this, should the female show any interest, the male begins a ritualized display called "tidbitting," the Gambel's equivalent to taking a good-looking girl to a fancy restaurant. He offers her choice Gambel's delicacies, which she seems to find far more interesting than his showboating and fighting. If he wins her heart, she will crouch seductively, and the two will couple.