Scaled Quail - Food Habits

Food Habits

Scaled Quail are opportunistic eaters. Seeds are consumed year-round. Large seeds (such as those of mesquite and snakeweed) are important in Scaled Quail diets. Other seeds include those of elbowbush (Forestiera angustifolia), catclaw acacia, mesquite, hackberry (Celtis spp.), Russian-thistle, rough pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus), and sunflowers, ragweeds (Ambrosia spp.), and other Asteraceous plants. Scaled Quail consume more grass seeds than do other quail species. Other dietary components include leaves, fruits, and insects. Summer diets are high in green vegetation and insects, which are also important sources of moisture.

In Oklahoma, small groups of Scaled Quail feed among soapweed yucca and in soapweed yucca-sand sagebrush ranges, weed patches, and grain stubble. Also in Oklahoma, early winter foods apparently eaten when other foods are not available included snow-on-the-mountain (Euphorbia marginata), sand paspalum (Paspalum stramineum), field sandbur (Cenchrus pauciflorus), purslane (Portulaca spp.), skunkbush sumac, Fendler spurge (Euphorbia fendleri), and leaf bugs. Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) and juniper berries were always avoided. Winter foods of the Scaled Quail in Oklahoma include Russian-thistle and sunflower (Helianthus spp.) seeds.

In northwestern Texas, selection of foods by Scaled Quail was dependent on foraging techniques, availability, and seed size. Small seeds were selected when they were still on the plant and could be easily stripped, but were not eaten once they had fallen, presumably because they were too small and/or too hard to find. Broom snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae) was a staple in winter diets; it was not highly selected but was consumed in proportion to its availability (and lack of availability of choice items). Generally, in Texas grass seeds (mainly tall dropseed and rough tridens ) were major constituents of Scaled Quail diets. This was attributed to a precipitation pattern that resulted in a relatively higher amount of grass seed available, and a lower amount of available forbs. In the same study green vegetation formed a higher proportion of the diet than reported for other areas.

In southwestern Texas, Chestnut-bellied Scaled Quail consumed woody plant seeds and green vegetation. The seeds of brush species comprised 68% of the contents of 32 Scaled Quail crops. Green food, chiefly wild carrot (Daucus carota) and clover (Trifolium spp.) made up 7.17%. Elbowbush was the single most important source, followed by Roemer acacia (Acacia roemeriana), desert-yaupon (Schaefferia cuneifolia), and spiny hackberry (Celtis pallida).

In southeastern New Mexico, staples (comprising at least 5% of Scaled Quail diet in both summer and winter) were mesquite and croton (Croton spp.) seeds, green vegetation, and snout beetles. Nonpreferred foods eaten in winter and available but not consumed in summer included broom snakeweed (the main winter food), crown-beard (Verbesina encelioides), cycloloma (Cycloloma atriplicifolium), and lace bugs. Mesquite seeds and broom snakeweed seeds together made up 75% of the winter diet. Grasshoppers were a summer staple. Insect galls, cicadas, scarab beetles, spurge (Euphorbia spp.), plains bristlegrass (Setaria macrostachya) seeds, and white ratany (Krameria grayi) were consumed in a less pronounced seasonal pattern. Another study reported substantial amounts of prairie sunflower seeds (Helianthus petiolaris) and pigweed (Amaranthus spp.) seeds in the diet of Scaled Quail.

Scaled Quail feed in alfalfa (Medicago spp.) fields.