General

Gambel's Quail: Medium-sized quail with gray upperparts and breast, scaled gray nape, black patch on center of abdomen, black head plume, white-bordered black face, cinnamon-brown crown, and buff underparts with flanks streaked with dark chestnut-brown and white. Female lacks black on head, face, and breast, has smaller plume, and shows a weakly scaled pattern on nape. Juvenile is smaller, with tan and gray mottling and streaking.

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.