California quail are not always a ground bird

February 2026

I was very excited to discover California quail in the garden recently and I am happy to report they came back day after day, despite cats and kids around at the same time. Being me - and having been surprised by the rather elevated spot the birds decided to check out when they first visited, see photo below - I have been trying to find out more information about the California quail.

California quail up on my house roof

The subspecies in Aotearoa New Zealand is Callipepla californica ssp. brunnescens, which is the California quail from the extreme northern coastal California to southern Santa Cruz County (wherever that is. I still don't know even after Googling it.) They are highly social (unlike this author) and they form groups of families called coveys, especially in autumn. They do have a te Reo name - Tikaokao - which is similar to their call, and can be found through most of New Zealand, having been successfully introduced as a game bird over 150 years ago. They are not thought to have a negative impact on the environment and they seem to be universally loved on social media. I think it's that cheeky, quail-about-town vibe they have going on.

Male, female (preening) and chick on the boardwalk that separates the bush from the flower garden

I thought these quail were part of the group that forages on the verges by Kauri Point Centennial Park, but I drove past there the other day and those birds are still there. Hubby tells me he's seen California quail cross our road further down the hill towards Kauri Point Domain (a different reserve to Centennial Park with a military base in between them), so they are likely more local than I thought.

NZ Birds Online is a good source of information about all our native and introduced birds and it states in NZ California quail eat seeds, plus some fruit and leaves. It even describes the low scrubland species they prefer and how they will roost in low branches. I'm not sure my lot have read that that is what they are meant to do. See where I found them the other evening.

That kanuka tree is at least 15m tall. That is not the ground. That is not low branches.

After a few days of confusion I read Cornell Labs information about them on their allaboutbirds.org website. Cornell too see the quails as feathered footballs (technically they called them soccer balls, but I've corrected their English) and the site said the quails will occasionally forage in trees. They also said they will occasionally nest up to 10 feet off the ground. It is by far more common for them to forage and nest on the ground and sure, the quail have been on the ground the other times I've spotted them. Still, my photo records them a long way off the ground for a so-called ground bird. They have to be 10m up at least.

The kanuka is a favourite resting spot for spotted doves and kereru and is our tallest tree now I've topped the liquidambers. It'll be a great place to find insects and I know that tui forage there. However, the quails are only carnivorous when they are young, so were probably not up there for food.

I read the Birds of New Zealand book by Paul Schofield et al. today. Flying up is a fear response and the quails may then drop back down into cover or land in a tree. This would definitely explain going onto my roof, as they were only up there for a few minutes before they started flying down onto next door's lawn. But when I was watching the pair in the tree, they were climbing up and then casually jumped between branches.

So what were they doing?

I've been mulling it over and I have come up with a theory. You can't argue with me on this one - it's the only possible answer:

They were after a spectacular sunset view of the Waitematā Harbour.

The rather bashed pottery California quail family that lives at the entrance to the butterfly garden