Common Quail elected as Iberia's bird of 2020

07/02/2020

Birdwatch 

In the first cross-national vote of its kind, Portugal and Spain have elected Common Quail as Bird of the Year 2020.

The online poll was organised by the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds (SPEA) and the Spanish Society of Ornithology (SEO/BirdLife), with Common Quail (7,390 votes) fighting off stiff competition from Montagu's Harrier (6,130) and Iberian Grey Shrike (5,156).

Although Common Quail remains a numerous species in Portugal, it has declined by an alarming 30% over the last decade alone, largely due to changes in agricultural practice.

The story is a familiar one: the overall intensification of farming, including expansion of monocultures, disappearance of fallow land and the removal of hedges and field margins leave less and less available habitat for this and other typical farmland birds. Quails feed on seeds, cereal grains and small invertebrates, so the species has also suffered from the increased use of herbicides and insecticides.

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This shy bird can escape a birdwatcher’s eye, but not illegal trappers' nets

21 Mar 2019

Despite its attempts to live a secretive life, the migration route of the endearingly rotund Common Quail leaves it subject to illegal trapping. Action is needed - with your help we can halt their decline and protect many other bird species at the same time.

By Cressida Stevens

The Common Quail is one of seven flagship birds in our Flight for Survival campaign to raise awareness of the scope and scale of the illegal killing of migratory birds.

The small, seemingly shy Common Quail Coturnix coturnix prefers to stay hidden amongst the rough grasses of farmland as it forages with its long, sharp claws for insects and seeds. Birdwatchers have much better chances of hearing their characteristic call than seeing them. Though a frustration to birdwatchers, their secretive behaviour is for their own good, since unfortunately when they do encounter humans it is often at their peril.

With streaked and barred brown feathers and a prominent white eye-stripe, they are distinctive in appearance, but their small and stocky build gives no allusion to the impressive flying feats this species is capable of. These birds habitually avoid flying: if disturbed, they prefer to either run away or ‘freeze’, hoping to go unnoticed. However, this changes in a spectacular fashion when, using their disproportionately long and powerful wings, they take to the skies to migrate between their breeding grounds in northern Europe and wintering grounds in the Sahel belt of sub-Saharan Africa. This makes them the only species of their order (which includes pheasants, partridges and grouse to name a few) which migrate.

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