Callipepla squamata
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The scaled quail (Callipepla squamata), also commonly called blue quail or cottontop, is a species of the New World quail family. It is a bluish gray bird found in the arid regions of the Southwestern United States to Central Mexico. This species is an early offshoot of the genus Callipepla, diverging in the Pliocene.
The nest is typically a grass-lined hollow containing 9–16 speckled eggs. When disturbed, it prefers to run rather than fly. Widespread and common throughout its range, the scaled quail is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Scaled quail occur from south-central Arizona, northern New Mexico, east-central Colorado, and southwestern Kansas south through western Oklahoma and western and central Texas into Mexico to northeastern Jalisco, Guanajuato, Queretaro, Hidalgo, and western Tamaulipas. It has been introduced to Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and to the United States in Hawaii, central Washington, eastern Nevada, and Nebraska, but is only considered established in central Washington and eastern Nevada.
Scaled quail has formed several subspecies, 3 of which range into the USA: Callipepla... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Guadalupe Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ecological Center of Sonora | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 2 | Phoenix Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Avifauna | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Scaled Quail sighting in Guadalupe Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 105th most-seen of the 141 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Scaled Quail in Guadalupe Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in November to September, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Scaled Quail sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 3
Of the 3 parks where we can rate Scaled Quail sightings, Guadalupe Mountains National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Big Bend National Park (United States, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Scaled Quail is recorded against all the birds logged in Guadalupe Mountains National Park (15 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
