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Scaled Quail: Game Bird Profile

For those bird hunters accustomed to hunting bobwhites, a trip for scaled quail might just require them to bring their track shoes.

Scaled Quail: Game Bird Profile

The scaled quail is a plump bird with a peaked crest of white, thus the “cottontop” nickname. (Photo By: Walter Eastland/Shutterstock.com)

The bobwhite quail may be the most popular game bird in America, with hunters from north to south and east to west pursuing the little bird with a passion. But that doesn’t mean the scaled quail (also called blue quail or cottontops) doesn’t have plenty of fans in the gun dog world.

A member of the Odontophoridae family like the bobwhite, Calipepla squamata, as biologists refer to the scaled quail, draws hunters from around the country to the arid southwest to try to bag this hard-running, fast-flying quail that often doesn’t choose to hang around when bird dogs are hot on its trail. 

Scaled Quail Range

Native to the desert grasslands of the...

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