Quail bird

The quail bird is a chicken from the partridge subfamily. Today, ordinary quail lives not only in the natural environment. Many farmers in the household have its varieties.

Bird quail

General about quail

The common species of quail birds has always served as prey for hunters. In addition to the fact that various birds were prepared from these birds, relics were made in the houses as songbirds. Another purpose of quails is to participate in quail battles.

In the chicken group, this is the only representative, along with dumb quail, related to migratory birds.

Description and photo of birds quail indicates small size:

• the length of the bird does not exceed 20 cm,
• the average weight of the quail varies from 80 to 145 g.

In addition to this, in the appearance of the quail, you can see other exceptional features:

• ocher shade SIC plumage,
• head and spinal top department and region nadhvostya and coverts of the tail feather stand transverse stripes and spots,
• Rear eye area feathers form a red stripe.

Among the distinguishing features of birds, one can distinguish long wings and a short tail. In its appearance on the photo, the quail is similar to the birds of the pheasant family.

Such a peculiar speckled plumage allows quails to easily hide from predators in the natural environment.

Males and females of ordinary quail differ among themselves primarily in color feathers on the throat. The female has black speckles in the lower part and on the lateral parts of the body, the throat and chin are painted in pale ocher. The buccal area of ​​the males is dark red, the goiter is of a similar shade, and the throat and chin are black in color.

Geographical area of ​​residence and migration

The habitat of the common quail is European territory, African continent and asian west. In Russia, the bird can be found in the eastern region right up to the Baikal territory.

Most of the quail representatives spend among the dense grass, protecting them from the eyes of predators. Preferring to stay on the ground, the quail does not sit on the branches of trees.

Quail often does not fly out of countries with a warm climate, since not every individual is able to overcome long distances due to poorly developed flying abilities. They fly at a short distance from the earth, and very often flap their wings, quickly getting tired, because many of them die along the paths passing through the seas to the places of migration, falling exhausted into the water.During migratory movements, they often arrange temporary stops on the seashores.

The place of residence of quail is flat fields and mountainous areas, meadows and forest edges and clearings, where a lot of plant food suitable for them grows. Open areas allow birds to live peacefully, being out of danger, since predators live there with rare exceptions.

For wintering, quail representatives fly closer to the zone of Africa and southwest Asia, settling mainly in south -African and Indochinese territories.

Nesting sites of the usual type of quail can be fixed in the direction of Turkestan, in the Middle East, he lives in Iranian areas. At the same time, migration to the southern habitats begins in these wild birds from the very beginning of April, and they return to the northern regions by the beginning of May, sometimes even in June.

Typical lifestyle and behavior

Quail voice

Quail representatives have always been known for their voice and ability to sing beautifully, while they were told that they know how to sing only quail males spruce females are only able to make a noise.

Quail sounds can be heard far enough, especially in calm weather. Unusually loud quail males start to cry during the mating season in the process of courtship for females.

In fact in fact, it’s difficult to call the voice of quail singing in its full sense, since the sounds made by the bird are more similar to repeated repetition.

Food

The basis of the nutritional diet of ordinary quail is plant food , which includes various braznye seeds, buds, plant shoots, leaves of shrubs and trees.Quails are rarely found on the quail menu, they are preferred by the younger generation, consuming invertebrates, various worms and small caterpillars. Matured individuals are more likely to consume cereals. As the crops ripen in the fields, the birds migrate to the field living conditions, feeding themselves with seeds of cereals and quickly gaining weight. Among quail preferences are corn cobs and wheat.

Living in captivity

In conditions of domestic captivity, ordinary quail can live long. So, the inhabitants of Central Asia still keep these birds in cages at home, using them both as fighting birds and as songbirds.

Among the inhabitants of Ancient Egypt, the image of the quail was used in the graphic image of sounds “ ”And“ in. “

Today, every second house is engaged in the breeding and maintenance of quail at home. They have tasty and nutritious meat and egg.

Nesting and breeding

Common quail do not differ in monogamy and each pair selects a new nesting season. They begin to arrange their quail nests as grass grows directly on the surface of the earth, starting this process with a small dug hole that is covered with grass blades. Quails often nest in wheat fields, where there is a lot of food for them, which causes the death of birds under the millstones of harvesting machines.

The female responsible for future offspring desperately guards her nest with eggs laid and, when predators appear, takes uninvited guests away from the egg laying site.

The quail egg laying usually from 8 to 10 eggs with a fawn shell, covered with brown specks.

Some quail females can lay up to 20 eggs in an egg-laying position.

The nestling period in quail birds is up to 2.5 weeks, while the male quail participation in the incubation later Twas not accept.

Almost immediately after the birth of newborn chicks become independent, ready to follow their parents. After 5-6 weeks, they become full-grown adults.