British wildlife recordings
Coturnix coturnix : Common Quail - Phasianidae
- Add a note
Log in to add a note at the bottom of this page.
- All notes
- My notes
- Hide notes
- Add to playlist
Log in to add this item to one of your personal lists.
- Add to favourites
Log in to add and display this item in your personal list of favourites on the right hand side of this page.
The British Library Board acknowledges the intellectual property rights of those named as contributors to this recording and the rights of those not identified.
Legal and ethical usage »
Type
sound
Duration
00:00:36
Shelf mark
W1CDR0001390 BD1
Subjects
Birds
Recording date
1966/06/15
Recording locations
Wimborne, Dorset: OS Grid Reference(401500,100500)
Recordist
Shove, Lawrence
Species
Quail, Coturnix coturnix
Description
Advertising call of the male quail, recorded at Winbourne, Devon. The quail is a secretive bird that rarely leaves cover during the breeding season, and is more often heard than seen. It is the only migratory British game bird, arriving from Africa in late April, before returning south in autumn. The quail resembles a tiny partridge, with yellowish-brown streaked upperparts and paler underparts. The favoured habitat of the quail is that of open country such as grassland or large cereal fields such as those found on chalk downland. The quail's diet consists of seeds from a variety of plants such as docks, goosefoot species, and poppies, as well as insect larvae, beetles, and grasshoppers. The distinctive call sounds like 'whit-whit-whit' or 'wet-my-lips', but the location is hard to pin down as the male seemingly throws its voice like a ventriloquist. A breeding pair is capable of producing a brood of between six to eighteen chicks and the young stay with the adults for up to 50 days before becoming independent. Approximately 500 birds are heard calling each summer from scattered locations across England, Wales, and south-east Scotland. Protected across Europe, the quail has declined drastically due to agricultural intensification on its breeding grounds, hunting on migration and droughts in its wintering grounds.
Metadata record: