California Quail hen close up in autumn – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1250, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
Yesterday I photographed a small covey of California Quail, this the second time this month that I have seen and photographed these small upland game birds that have wiggly, little head plumes.
The first quail hen I photographed yesterday was too close to fit her whole body into the frame so I focused on getting close up portraits of the hen. I liked the autumn colored leaves in the background.
California Quail moving towards cover – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
Some of the quail were were in a garden and others were on the driveway right next to it and while I typically don’t like the look of concrete in my photos the natural color of this driveway was appealing to me. If I hadn’t said this was a concrete driveway I wonder how many people would have thought it was natural stone.
This image is full frame and at this point I thought it might be better if I took my teleconverter off because I didn’t want to clip body parts of the birds while I photographed them.
California Quail hen back view – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
But I didn’t take the teleconverter off and I am glad I didn’t because I was able to take more photos of the quail where they filled the frame and showed the fine details of their plumage off well. A touch more depth of field would have been better for this photo to get the tails feathers of this hen sharply in focus too but I didn’t have much time to adjust my settings because the quail weren’t standing still for long.
Male California Quail running in morning light – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I was pleased to photograph this male California Quail running across the driveway and to get him with one foot in the air. California Quail are striking birds with their head plumes and intricately scaled plumage so I was happy to focus on them for a few minutes yesterday morning.
Life is good.
Mia
Click here to see more of my California Quail photos plus facts and information about this species.
We used to live in Northern Calif., about 30 miles west of Mt. Lassen. Nearly every morning we would see different families of Quail run across our yard. My kids would get up early just to watch them them. They loved it. These wonderful pics bring it all back. Thanks Mia.
California Quail are one of my favorite. Beautiful bird and great pictures. Thanks
What absolute charmers.
That plume ‘dangling’ in front of my eyes would drive me crazy (crazier?) though.
Beautiful pictures!
Beautiful light. I thought they were on sand. It has been killing me to look at both your and Ron’s photos on my iPone screen.
Love these shots Mia!
Beautiful photos of beautiful birds.
Very pretty! You should visit southern Arizona and photograph our Gambel’s, Scaled, and Montezuma Quail
Beautiful pictures…and such a beauty of a bird!