We annually watch several California Quail broods in our bird feeding area and adjacent habitat. Sometimes single adults seem to lead the young, but usually it's pairs. And we often see chicks of different clutches (different sized chicks) become combined and led by one pair.

Some excerpts below from the online Birds of the World (formerly Birds of North America) shed some light.

Bob Sundstrom


Parental Behavior
Female usually does all of the incubating; there is anecdotal evidence that if a female dies during incubation her mate will incubate (Glading 1938a, Williams 1969, Campbell et al. 1990a). However, males often have brood patches and single males sometimes join a family of one or more adults and chicks (Leopold 1977, Calkins 2007, JMG), and it is not unusual for males to adopt chicks (Leopold 1977).

Extra adults, predominantly males, are sometimes associated with broods after hatching (Calkins 2007, S. N. A. Mastrup pers. comm.). Unclear whether these are extra-pair parents (copulatory partners that do not engage in typical pair-bonding behavior) or "helpers."

California Quail often exhibit post-hatch aggregation of young (Lott and Mastrup 1999, Calkins 2007). Communal broods are combined young of ≥ 2 females with associated adult males. There is some evidence that kin relationships among adults may drive brood amalgamation in this species. .... Brood amalgamation may serve to increase adult longevity (Lott and Mastrup 1999).



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> On Jul 17, 2020, at 12:44 PM, Denis DeSilvis <avnacrs4birds at outlook.com> wrote:

>

> 

> Tweeters,

> Has anyone in Tweeterdom had the following observation concerning California Quail? Or any ideas about whether this is a relatively common occurrence?

>

> About 10 years ago, we had a male California Quail raise two chicks from very tiny size to adult birds. Since then, on most years we've had at least one family group that's had just a lone male as the single parent.

>

> This year, one "family" of 8 young has been shepherded by a single male (the female quail disappeared about 2 weeks ago), and one group of 8-10 young has two male quails as "parents." We may have another group with both parents, but I need to confirm that.

>

> My thought is that the female quails might be more susceptible to predators because of breeding stress. However...?

>

> Any ideas about this parenting aspect for California Quail or quails in general?

>

> Thanks, and may all your birds be identified,

>

> Denis

> avnacrs4birds at outlook.com

>

> Avian Acres 🦉

> Roy, WA

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