{"id":49709,"date":"2017-12-06T05:29:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T12:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49709"},"modified":"2025-09-05T06:08:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T11:08:00","slug":"winter-views-of-california-quail-in-northern-utah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/06\/winter-views-of-california-quail-in-northern-utah\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Views of California Quail in Northern Utah"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MaleMale California Quail running in snow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I was able to photograph several California Quail in snow yesterday in Davis County, Utah and I was also able to listen to at least one male calling.<\/p>\n

I wanted to share this recording<\/span><\/a> for your listening pleasure while reading this post, other birds that can be heard in the background are Dark-eyed Junco, Mourning Dove, California Scrub-Jay, and Wrentit.<\/p>\n

There was more snow on the ground in Davis County than here at home in Salt Lake County and I was happy to see it. The birds sure stood out well from the white of the snow plus I also liked the autumn colors of the shrubbery in the background.<\/p>\n

This male scooted by pretty fast and I was only able to get a couple dozen images of him. I love the feathered top knots these birds have.<\/p>\n

\"PairPair of California Quail females – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The feathered top knots of the females are a bit smaller than those of the males and the females don’t have the striking bold white stripes on their faces but I appreciate the scaled feathers on their breasts, their more subdued coloration and the tiny polka dot patterns on their necks.<\/p>\n

I wish I could have gotten both the birds in this frame as sharply in focus as the bird in the foreground but they were fairly close to me and I needed more depth of field than I had with the settings I was using.<\/p>\n

\"FemaleFemale California Quail standing in snow – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This female was very cooperative and stood out in the open on the snow for a bit as the other quail moved out of my view.<\/p>\n

In the summer when I have my windows at home open for fresh air I can hear the calls and songs of the California Quail as they court and raise their young. I love hearing them even in the city. I should photograph them at home more often than I do.<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter California Quail female – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It was very nice to spend just a small amount of time with these California Quail yesterday listening to them, observing and photographing them as they went about the business of being birds.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my California Quail photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was able to photograph several California Quail in snow yesterday in Davis County, Utah and I was also able to listen to at least one male calling. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1203,1022,26],"tags":[4004,6264,6263,4070,4062,6265,4050,401,373],"class_list":["post-49709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-california-quails","category-davis-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-california-quail","tag-callipepla-californica","tag-female","tag-male","tag-quail","tag-snow","tag-upland-game-birds","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/california-quail-snow-male-mia-mcpherson-0191.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cVL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55080,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/21\/november-california-quail-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":49709,"position":0},"title":"November California Quail In Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I think that both male and female California Quail are striking birds with their head plumes, facial feather patterns, earth toned plumage and scaled underparts so whenever I see them I want to photograph them.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fluffed up female and male California Quail, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/california-quail-male-female-mia-mcpherson-1246.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/california-quail-male-female-mia-mcpherson-1246.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male California Quail crossing a sidewalk, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/california-quail-male-sidewalk-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/california-quail-male-sidewalk-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/california-quail-male-sidewalk-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/california-quail-male-sidewalk-mia-mcpherson-7685.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-male-running-mia-mcpherson-4146.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-male-running-mia-mcpherson-4146.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-male-running-mia-mcpherson-4146.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-male-running-mia-mcpherson-4146.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55283,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/12\/14\/roosting-male-california-quail-yawning\/","url_meta":{"origin":49709,"position":3},"title":"Roosting Male California Quail Yawning","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"One male California Quail turned his head and through my viewfinder I could see him yawning and this was the only photo I got of him where I could see his entire face and eyes at a good angle.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Male California Quail yawning, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-quail-male-yawning-mia-mcpherson-3168.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-quail-male-yawning-mia-mcpherson-3168.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/california-quail-male-yawning-mia-mcpherson-3168.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While walking along the Jordan River yesterday, I came upon a covey of about 25 California Quail. I was able to get close enough to photograph a few of them.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"California Quail male and fall leaves, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/california-quail-autumn-mia-mcpherson-3056.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/california-quail-autumn-mia-mcpherson-3056.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/california-quail-autumn-mia-mcpherson-3056.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/california-quail-autumn-mia-mcpherson-3056.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}