Common Quail

Coturnix coturnix

Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
Presence in the Strait: Seasonal
Abundance: common
IUCN (global): LC · Least concern
In Spanish: Codorniz común

Photograph: anonymous, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist

Length: 16–18 cm
Wingspan: 32–35 cm
Weight: 100 g

Presence in the Strait

Common summer resident in crop areas. Varies in yearly number and is affected by periods of drought. There’s a small resident group in the region of La Janda.

Identification

Squat, rounded appearance, half the size of the Red-legged Partridge; cryptic plumage with several dark greyish-brown and cream longitudinal stripes. Male has black centred throat and light coloured collar. Easy to detect thanks to the calls of males: rapid, trisyllabic and rhythmically repeated: «pit pil-it». Direct flight with rapid beats just above the ground.

Movements

Very abundant migrant towards the end of the 19th Century, has experienced strong decrease in population. Peaks in 2nd hf. April and September.

Ring recoveries

Italy (4). Phasianidae Perdiz Roja Perdiz Moruna Codorniz Común

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

26 %

Peak in April. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 10 May 1874
Latest record: 31 December 2024

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Not included
Spanish Catalogue: Not included
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: EN · Endangered · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Phenology compared

Monthly distribution in proportion, by decade. It shows whether the passage is getting earlier or later.

2000–2009

2010–2026

Proportions, not totals: observation effort grew faster than any population.

Where they come from

4 birds ringed in other countries and recovered in the area.

Italy4

See the journey on the map

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Galliformes
Family: Phasianidae
GBIF taxon key: 2474156

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: anonymous, CC BY-SA, vía iNaturalist
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Common Quail

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Ring recoveries

Gallery