Common quail

    Coturnix coturnix

Castilian: Codorniz común

Catalan: Guatlla

Gallego: Paspallás

Euskera: Galeperra

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Galliformes

Family: Phasianidae

Migratory status: Summer resident

CONSERVATION STATUS:

In the 2004 edition of the Red Book of Spanish Birds (Libro Rojo de las Aves de España) it is listed as “Insufficient Data”.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

listen song

THREATS

The alteration of its habitat due to farming changes and agricultural intensification, pressure from hunters, and genetic contamination due to the release of the Japanese quail and hybrid species into the wild.

Length / size: 16-18 cm / 32-35 cm

Identification: Pudgy bird, the smallest of all galliformes. It has cryptic, earth-coloured plumage with white, off-white and dark brown streaks, and a pale throat. Males have a black anchor-shaped spot and a distinctive forehead. In flight it quickly flaps its wings at low altitudes.

Song: Males make a repetitive "pas-pa-yaaas" whistling sound.

Diet: It feeds on wild seeds, bits of grains, and invertebrates.

Reproduction: There is a part of the population that lays one clutch in northern Africa or in the southern Iberian Peninsula in February and March, and then lays a second clutch further to the south in June/July. Incubation and caring for the chicks is done by the mother.

HABITAT

It occupies open lands like plains, farmland, pastureland, grasslands, etc. It can occasionally be seen in high mountain areas.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: It is only absent in the central part of the Cantabrian Mountains and in the dryest areas of the Cantabrian coastline.

In Castile and León: It breeds in all the provinces.

Movements and migrations: Its movement pattern is complex: on the one hand, it is a migrant that travels long distances, given that its wintering areas are in the southern Sahara; on the other hand, depending on how the spring and summer go, nomadic northbound movements occur; and finally, there are movements in search of a mate.

POPULATION

In Spain: There is an estimated population of 320000-435000 breeding pairs.

In Castile and León: There is no data about the population size.