Found her lurking in my Neem tree! Very smart bird she is (the singing Quail). The male of course is brown with white spots, but females are all black. Other than that, they are exactly the same size and shape. Local myth is (since generations) that if a Quail starts to sing in the trees, it means that it will rain soon. I however think that their mating season has just started. Pakistani Quail ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden ) Pakistani Quail ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden )
Great pix S-H, I think Toni needs 1 or 2 otherwise her flowers will only be good for dried arrangements. Let us know if it rains. Jerry
I've never heard of a Singing Quail before S-H. So glad you managed to get a photograph of the female to let us all see what they look like. Maybe you'll be lucky and get a shot of the male for us too sometime soon. :-D
Nice bird! I wanted to look it up but I can't find your variety anywhere. Do you know the scientific name for it?
No Droopy, I unfortunately do not know the zoological name. We over here just call it the Quail. By the way, our type of Quails are strictly fruit eating birds (so they are not scavengers). And I think they don't even like to eat insects. And no guys, I still have not had a drop of rain up till now. Nor am I able to photograph the male Quail - However, I did find one dropped feather of the male Quail. Therefore I think I now know exactly under which tree he like to hide. So sooner or later, I'll get him with my camera!!! Male Quail's Feather. ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden )
That feather reminds me of some of the ones I find from birds of prey over here. It's nicely barred so the male must be a handsome bird. At least you know that you have a pair of these quails so, hopefully, they'll breed and have lots of babies.
Good luck with photographing the elusive male quail S-H. Wildlife stalking with a camera is most often a challenge. Jerry
Well Jerry, for me it isn't all that big a challenge - Because I only have to look out the window to see if the Quail is setting on the branches of my tree or not. So it all actually depends who owns the tree the Quail happens to like! :-D And Eileen, well, I have seen over 5 females in my tree at a time, yet only one male (which flew away very quickly, so I couldn't take it's picture). The thing with our Quails is that these birds don't know how to build a nest. They are very shy and solitude loving birds (but are also extremely intelligent at the same time). Anyway after they mate, I seriously doubt if the pair sticks together for long (unlike other birds which bond for a lifetime). Anyway I was telling you all that our Quails don't know how to build a nest. So when the times comes, the female lays her eggs in a Crow's nest (while the male Quail is terrorizing the Crows away from their nest). Their egg's are exactly the same size and shape of our House Crows (but they hatch sooner than the Crow's eggs). So when the Crows return to their nest, they can't tell which eggs are theirs, and which belong to the Quail. So the female crow has to choice but to care for all the eggs. And when they hatch, the crows also have to raise the Quails as their own. However, soon the Quails start to develop their usual characteristics. And since they have a longer tail, the Quail chicks learn to fly on their own sooner than the Crow chicks. So that's when the Quails (exactly like ungrateful and spoiled children) leave their crow family to live on their own. It is said that our Crows (which are actually the House Crow verity) - Are the smartest creatures in our urban skies. No other bird except for the Quail can outsmart the Crows. Pakistani House Crow ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden )
And I FINALLY, after 3 years of waiting for the right moment - Shot the male Quail with my camera! The males are unbelievably shy, and females extremely aggressive and very dominant (specially when it comes to watching over her own male). So it indeed is a very rare sight to spot a male that is all alone... Anyway, in this group of pictures the male was perched on the branches of my Need tree, until his female noticed me photographing him. So she scream at him until he too noticed me and flew away - But in the air too, it could clearly be seen that she was the leader, and the male no different then a yes-man. Females are all black, while the males are either brown or gray colored with white spots. Other then this, they are of exactly the same size and shape. Even their eyes are like real shiny rubies! And I know that some of you must have thought that I was just making it all up - Which is exactly why I reopened this old thread! Male Quail 1 ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden ) Male Quail 2 ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden ) Female Quail 1 ( photo / image / picture from S-H's Garden )
Your patience has, at last, been rewarded. :-D Your Quail have the same habit as our Cuckoos of laying eggs in other birds nests. I find it quite strange that the male bird is the duller, and more easily disguised, of the two and the female the more flamboyant. It also seems quite odd to me that the females protect the males when, with other species, it's me male looking out for the females.
It is Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) bird a member of cuckoo family. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Koel
I couln't figure out how I missed this post...until I read that you reopened it. Very good! That was a very patient photographer you were.. We have what is called the brown headed cow bird here which does the same thing, except she uses the songbirds nests and the songbird abandons their own eggs because they don't hatch as quickly as the cowbirds. thus they raise the cowbird instead of their own chicks.
