Mountain Quail: A Lonely Mountaineer at Pinecrest Lake

Many people are familiar with our state bird, the California Quail (Callipepla californica).  Less well-known are North America's other quail species: Gambel's Quail (C. gambelii), Scaled Quail (C. squamata), Montezuma Quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae), and Mountain Quail (Oreortyx pictus). 

Of the aforementioned species, three are found in California: California Quail, Gambel's Quail and Mountain Quail.  California Quail range across most of the state, as well as into Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Baja California.  But they are replaced in the desert portions of the state by Gambel's Quail, and in the Sierra Nevada by Mountain Quail.  (Scaled Quail and Montezuma Quail are found in the southwestern United States, including parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; their ranges also extend south into Mexico.)

Male Mountain Quail (Oreortyx pictus)

Mountain Quail are found in the Coast Ranges and northern part of the state, as well as the Sierra Nevada and mountains of southern California; their range forms a neat ring around the Central Valley, and overlaps to some extent with that of the more common California Quail.  The male Mountain Quail can be distinguished from the California Quail by the straight plume atop its head and vertical white stripes on its reddish flanks. 

Mountain Quail are rather secretive birds, preferring coniferous forests, pine-oak woodlands and chaparral with dense vegetation for cover.  During hot weather, they are seldom far from water. 


During a search for an American Dipper a few days ago, I found myself instead in the presence of another of John Muir's favorite birds: the Mountain Quail.  

While walking along the trail around Pinecrest Lake, a family of Mountain Quail delighted us by crossing the trail ahead of us, pausing just long enough for a few photos.  Previously, my only glimpses of Mountain Quail have been brief, as they tend to hurry quickly out of sight and secret themselves beneath manzanita, ceanothus and other dense shrubs.


John Muir gives a fond account of the Mountain Quail in his 1898 article titled Among the Birds of the Yosemite:

"The mountain quail, or plumed partridge (Oreortyx pictus plumiferus) is common in all the upper portions of the Park, though nowhere in numbers. He ranges considerably higher than the grouse in summer, but is unable to endure the heavy storms of winter. When his food is buried, he descends the range to the brushy foothills, at a height of from two to three thousand feet above sea; but like every true mountaineer, he is quick to follow the spring back into the highest mountains. I think he is the very handsomest and most interesting of all the American partridges, larger and handsomer than the famous Bob White, or even the fine California valley quail, or the Massena partridge [Montezuma Quail] of Arizona and Mexico. That he is not so regarded, is because as a lonely mountaineer he is not half known."
 
Muir goes on to describe an encounter he had with a family of curious Mountain Quail while quietly sketching in Yosemite.  Thanks to modern technology, the full article can be accessed here: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1898/12/among-the-birds-of-the-yosemite/308171/
Now, what would John Muir think about that?

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