\u00a0\u00a0 Someone recently contacted the nursery where I work interested in buying plants that will improve her \u00a0habitat for quail. This is what I came up with for her:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 I am assuming you are referring to California Quail. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Habitat in general is the most important thing to consider. Quail eat tender leaves in late winter and spring, but rely mostly on seeds. They will also eat insects such as ants, beetles, grasshoppers & crickets. I always recommend that people who want to create habitat for wildlife should not be neatniks, because many of the plants that wildlife depend upon are considered weeds by people. And of course, as you mentioned in your email, they need shrubs for protection (cover) and access to water, too.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 I am attaching scanned pages from American Wild life & Plants, A Guide to Wildlife Food Habits,<\/i> by Alexander C. Martin, Et.al. (1951) (It is a Dover Publication published by agreement of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, so is not under copyright.) It lists weeds that you may want to encourage in your yard.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Quail Food<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0 In addition, food plants that we have at the nursery would include:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Seeds:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Oregon White Oak, Quercus garryana<\/a><\/p>\n

Deerbrush, Ceanothus velutinus<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Redstem Ceanothus, Ceanothus sanguineus<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pacific Mock Orange, Philadelphus lewisii<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fruit:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Coast Silktassel, Garrya elliptica<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nootka Rose, Peafruit Rose, Baldhip Rose, Rosa sp.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Salmonberry, Thimbleberry, Blackcap Raspberry, <\/i>Dewberry, Rubus sp.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Redtwig Dogwood, Cornus sericea<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Soapberry or Buffaloberry, Shepherdia Canadensis<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Twinberry, Lonicera involucrata<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Coast Strawberry, Wild Strawberry, Wood Strawberry, Fragaria Sp.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 Someone recently contacted the nursery where I work interested in buying plants that will improve her \u00a0habitat for quail. This is what I came up with for her: \u00a0\u00a0 I am assuming you are referring to California Quail. \u00a0\u00a0 Habitat in general is the most important thing to consider. Quail eat tender leaves in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":956,"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}