Common Quail

The common quail is a small, compact ground-nesting gamebird 16–18 cm long, with a wingspan of 32–35 cm and a weight of 70–140 g. It is streaked brown with a white eyestripe and, in the male, a white chin. It is terrestrial, feeding on the ground on weed seeds and cereal gleanings and on insects such as beetles, bugs, ants and earwigs. It is more often heard than seen, with a characteristic call of three repeated chirps, and should not be confused with the similar Japanese quail, whose call is very different (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is mainly migratory, breeding in the Palearctic and wintering in Africa and southern India. The female makes a shallow scrape on the ground, sparsely lined with vegetation, and the eggs hatch together after 17–20 days. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant and localised summer migrant of open habitat that eats plants and seeds; it does not assign it a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).