Timing of Major Life Events
In Arizona, pairing and maximum dispersal is complete by mid-June. Nesting probably does not begin until early July. In Oklahoma, egg laying usually starts in late April. Completed clutches have been found as early as May 8. Egg laying occurs from March to June in Texas and Mexico, and from April to September in New Mexico. Nests with eggs were reported as early as April 15 in New Mexico.
Scaled Quail lay from 9 to 16 eggs; most clutches are 12 to 14 eggs. Eggs are incubated by the female for 21 to 23 days. Double-brooding (the production of two consecutive broods in one season) is common. In west Texas, Wallmo observed the male rearing the first brood while the female began a second clutch. Sutton stated, however, that Scaled Quail in Oklahoma are probably single-brooded, but have hatched broods as late as September 6. Ehrlich and others also list Scaled Quail as single-brooded.
The precocial young leave the nest shortly after hatching. They are accompanied by at least one, usually both, parents, who show them how to find food. The young fledge rapidly (age at fledging not reported in the literature), and are adult size in 11 to 15 weeks.
Scaled Quail are fairly sedentary. The winter home ranges of Scaled Quail coveys varied from 24 to 84 acres (9.6–33.6 ha). The home ranges of separate coveys overlap only slightly or not at all. From September to November Scaled Quail coveys maintain stable territories. In Arizona, 75 to 90% of a population apparently moved off of a breeding area by mid-November, moving to nearby mountain foothills. The mountain habitat was consistent with that found on the breeding area. In March the population on the breeding area increased again, with most birds in groups of four to eight.
The average winter covey size for Scaled Quail is around 30 birds, although coveys of up to 150 birds have been reported.
Read more about this topic: Scaled Quail
Famous quotes containing the words timing, major, life and/or events:
“A great man always considers the timing before he acts.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The major men
That is different. They are characters beyond
Reality, composed thereof. They are
The fictive man created out of men.
They are men but artificial men.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Mothers who are strong people, who can pursue a life of their own when it is time to let their children go, empower their children of either gender to feel free and whole. But weak women, women who feel and act like victims of something or other, may make their children feel responsible for taking care of them, and they can carry their children down with them.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Whatever events in progress shall disgust men with cities, and infuse into them the passion for country life, and country pleasures, will render a service to the whole face of this continent, and will further the most poetic of all the occupations of real life, the bringing out by art the native but hidden graces of the landscape.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)