Common quail bird
The quail bird belongs to the chickens from the partridge subfamily. Today, the common quail lives not only in the natural environment. Many farmers in the household have its varieties.
Quail bird
General about quails
The common species of quail birds has always served as prey for hunters. In addition to the fact that various dishes were prepared from these birds, quails were kept in houses as songbirds. Another purpose of quails is to participate in quail fights.
In the order of chickens, this is the only representative, together with the mute quail, belonging to the migratory one.
Description and photo of quail birds indicates small sizes:
- birds grow no more than 20 cm in length,
- the average weight of a quail varies from 80 to 145 g.
In addition, in the photo in the appearance of the quail, you can see other exceptional features:
- ocher tint of the main plumage,
- the head and dorsal region from above, as well as the area of the upper tail and the covering feather of the tail itself, are distinguished by transverse stripes and specks,
- behind the eye area, the feathers form a red stripe.
Among the distinctive features of birds, one can point out long wings and a short tail. In its appearance in the photo, the quail looks like 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 common quail differ from each other primarily in the color of the feathers on the throat. The female has black specks in the lower part and on the lateral parts of the body, the throat and chin are painted in pale ocher. The buccal region of males is dark red, the area of the goiter is of a similar shade, and the throat and chin are black.
Geographic area of residence and migration
The habitat of the common quail is the European territory, the African continent and the Asian west. In Russia, the bird can be found in the eastern region up to the Baikal territory.
Most of the quail representatives spend among the dense grass that protects them from the eyes of predators. Preferring to stay on the ground, the quail does not sit on tree branches.
Quails often do not fly away from countries with a warm climate, since, due to not very developed flying abilities, not every individual is able to overcome long distances. They fly at a close distance from the ground, while very often flap their wings, quickly getting tired, therefore many of them die along the routes passing through the seas to the places of migration, exhaustedly falling into the water. During migratory movements, they often arrange temporary stops on the seashore.
The place of residence of the quail is flat fields and mountainous areas, meadows and forest edges and meadows, where a lot of plant food suitable for them grows.Open areas allow birds to live in peace, being out of danger, since predators live there with rare exceptions.
For wintering, quail representatives fly closer to the African zone and to the south-west of Asia, settling mainly in the South African and Indo-Chinese territories.
The nesting places of the common species of quail can be fixed in the direction of Turkestan, in the Middle East, it lives in the Iranian regions. At the same time, the migration to the southern habitats of these wild birds begins 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. At the same time, it was said about them that only male quails can sing, quail females are only able to turtle.
The sounds made by the quail can be heard far enough, especially in calm weather. Unusually loud quail males begin to scream during the onset of the mating season in the process of courting females.
In fact, the voice of a quail can hardly be called singing in its full sense, since the sounds emitted by a bird are more similar to a repeatedly repeated wakan.
Food
The basis of the nutritious diet of common quail is plant food, which includes a variety of seeds, buds, plant shoots, foliage of shrubs and trees. Slightly less often insects are on the menu of quails, they are preferred by the younger generation, using invertebrates, various worms and small caterpillars. Matured individuals are more inclined to eat cereals. As the grain crops ripen in the fields, the birds move to field living conditions, feeding on seeds of cereals and quickly gaining weight. Among the preferences of quails are corn cobs and wheat.
Living in captivity
In conditions of domestic bondage, an ordinary quail can live a long time. So, the inhabitants of Central Asia still keep these birds at home in cages, using them both as fighting birds and as songbirds.
The inhabitants of Ancient Egypt used the image of a quail in the graphic representation of the sounds "y" and "v".
Today, every second poultry house is engaged in breeding and keeping quails at home. Their meat and eggs are tasty and nutritious.
Nesting and breeding
Common quails do not differ in monogamy and a new pair is chosen every nesting season. Quails begin to arrange their nests as the grass grows right on the surface of the earth, starting this process from a small dug hole, which 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 the future offspring desperately guards her nest with laid eggs and, when predators appear, takes the intruders away from the egg-laying site.
Quail egg-laying usually consists of 8 to 10 eggs with a pale yellow shell covered with brown specks.
In some quail females, up to 20 eggs can be found in egg-laying.
The period of incubation of chicks in quail birds is up to 2.5 weeks, while the male quail does not take part in incubating the offspring.
Almost immediately after birth, newborn chicks become independent, ready to follow their parents. After 5-6 weeks, they become full-fledged adult birds.