Hi Tweets,

The consensus of the replies from Gary, Hal, 2 Pats, a Pan, Kim, Jennell is that the attractive ball of feathers is a type of quail, likely a species raised for a variety of purposes, including feeding rehab or captive falcons, having as a pet, using for human food, i.e. eggs and meat or as yard decoration, etc. - the most-mentioned likely species is Japanese Coturnix, a commonly-bred domesticated species. Likely an escapee from one of the neighbors...

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Just got a message from Lisa G. who concurs that this is a Japanese Coturnix and that she thinks she knows the source of this N. Seattle 'stray', i.e. some friends whose quail hutch was recently raided by raccoons and there are a couple of the birds missing. If we can catch the quail, Lisa will gladly return it to its owner. Maybe the reward is a couple of eggs...:-)

I heard from the people who found it yesterday and they said the quail was still in their make-shift concrete block compound in their yard and was happily eating bird seed and drinking water. I will contact them to tell of this recent revelation and hopefully, there will be a happy ending to this story (at least for the owners - not sure about the bird...:-/

Thanks to all who responded.


Barb Deihl
Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net