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scaled quail

Callipepla squamata

Summary 7

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.

Characteristics 8

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Distribution 9

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, Queretaru, Hidalgo, and western Tamaulipas. It has
been introduced to Hawaii, central Washington, eastern Nevada, and
Nebraska, but is only considered established in central Washington and
eastern Nevada [1,25].

Distribution of subspecies is as follows:

Callipepla squamata ssp. castanogastris occurs from southern Texas south
through Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, and eastern Coahuila, Mexico.

C. s. hargravei is found in western Oklahoma, southwestern Kansas,
southeastern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and northwestern Texas.

C. s. pallida occurs from southern Arizona, southern New Mexico, and
western Texas south to northern Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico.

C. s. squamata occurs in Mexico from northern Sonora and Tamaulipas
south to the Valley of Mexico [15].

Iucn red list assessment 10


Red List Category
LC
Least Concern

Red List Criteria

Version
3.1

Year Assessed
2012

Assessor/s
BirdLife International

Reviewer/s
Butchart, S. & Symes, A.

Contributor/s

Justification
This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Danny Barron, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), http://www.flickr.com/photos/56398280@N00/2232813054
  2. (c) Jiří Bukovský, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/63277.jpg
  3. (c) 2001 California Academy of Sciences, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=31993&one=T
  4. (c) 2009 Robert Sivinski, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=278191&one=T
  5. (c) Jiří Bukovský, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.biolib.cz/IMG/GAL/63278.jpg
  6. (c) jimcox, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://images.dev.morphbank.net/?id=789305&imgType=jpg
  7. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callipepla_squamata
  8. (c) Unknown, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/10108746
  9. Public Domain, http://eol.org/data_objects/24257031
  10. (c) International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28034731

More Info

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(c) Discover Life and original sources, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC-SA)

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