California Quail in the Garden

It isn't too hard to make your garden attractive to the California Quail. And the California Quail can be a wonderful part of the garden. The Quail prefer a section of shrubs next to an open space. The California Quail spend much of their energies scratching much like a chicken would. This tilling of the soil helps to keep the garden healthy with a bit less effort from me. We had quail in our neighborhood but the quail rarely visited our house before I put a water feature in our garden. Within a week of hearing splashing water the California Quail started to come by. Now there are two coveys of Quail that live here with about 20-30 birds in each. Important factors for attracting the Quail in addition to the water, are cover for them to hide under or in and places for them to scratch in the leaf litter. One group lives in the hedge by our driveway and the other in the berry patch.