California Quail can be
a wonderful part of the garden. They eat seeds and insects from the
ground. They also spend much of their energies scratching much like
a chicken would. This tilling of the soil helps to keep the garden
healthy with a bit less effort from me. We had quail in the
neighborhood for the several years before I put a water feature in
our garden. But they rarely came even just to visit. Within a
week of hearing splashing water they started to come by. Now there
are two coveys of Quail that live here with about 20-30 birds in
each. Important factors for the Quail in addition to the water are
cover for them to hide under or in and places for them to scratch in the
leaf litter. One group lives in the hedge by our driveway and the
other in the berry patch.
This
image is available in high resolution and is part of our stock photo
collection.
