Mountain Quail (Oreortyx pictus)

About Mountain Quail (Oreortyx pictus)

• Kingdom: Animals
• Phylum: Chordates
• Class: Birds
• Order: Turkey-like birds
• Family: New World Quail

Comments: Decline in west-central and southwestern Idaho perhaps has been due to competitve exclusion by California quail, disturbance from livestock and humans during the nesting season, predation by coyote, hunting, and heavy mortality during severe winters (Spahr et al. 1991).

Petitioners (see USFWS 2003) contended that mountain quail populations occurring northern and western Great Basin, the Interior Columbia Basin, and lands west to the Cascade Crest within Washington and Oregon have sustained a dramatic range contraction caused by extensive loss of riparian habitats, loss of woody vegetation associated with riparian habitats, loss of interfacing upland shrub habitats, loss of plant species diversity, and simplification of habitats. The petitioners claimed that 80 to 90 percent of riparian habitats essential to the mountain quail in arid interior lands have been lost, fragmented, or altered. This is in contrast to the more humid coastal forests of Oregon, Washington, and California, where mountain quail populations are more abundant and widespread due to broad areas of continuous habitat.