The California Quail (Callipepla californica) is the state bird of California and it has recently been designated the official bird of the City and County of San Francisco. Unfortunately, numbers of quail in San Francisco have dwindled to dangerously low levels. In response, the Presidio Trust joined the Golden Gate Audubon Society's regional "Save the Quail" campaign, and began volunteer-based efforts to restore Quail habitat in the park.

PRBO is providing guidance and scientific expertise to the efforts to restore the population of California Quail in the Presidio of San Francisco.

Our role has varied from color banding individual birds to participating in working groups with the Presidio Trust and Golden Gate Audubon Society regarding quail conservation.

Contact: Tom Gardali

 

How you can help:

• Report your sightings of California Quail in the Presidio to the Presidio Trust
• The Golden Gate Audubon Society and the Presidio Trust leads quail restoration work days the last Saturday of every month. Click here for more details.

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Objectives of the color banding study:

• Color band the quail of the Presidio with unique color combinations so that individuals may be identified and tracked.
• Conduct a citizen-based study using reported quail observations from the general public to keep track of the quail. Public input is imperative to successfully determine which areas the quail frequent. This in turn will allow management of these areas to enhance quail habitat.
• By color banding individual quail we also have the potential to learn more about the quail's population size, home range size, movement patterns, habitat use, reproductive success, and annual adult and juvenile survival.
• Identify the factors limiting the quail population.

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