• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic source(s)
AERC TAC. 2003. AERC TAC Checklist of bird taxa occurring in Western Palearctic region, 15th Draft. Available at: http://www.aerc.eu/DOCS/Bird_taxa_of_the_WP15.xls.
Christidis, L. and Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia.
Cramp, S. and Simmons, K.E.L. (eds). 1977-1994. Handbook of the birds of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The birds of the western Palearctic. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
SACC. 2005 and updates. A classification of the bird species of South America. Available at: https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm.
Turbott, E.G. 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand. Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Wellington.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Least Concern
2018	Least Concern
2016	Least Concern
2012	Least Concern
2009	Least Concern
2008	Least Concern
2004	Least Concern
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	low
Land-mass type		Average mass	151 g

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	2,790,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	5800000 mature individuals	poor	inferred	2019
Population trend	increasing	-	inferred	-
Generation length	2.1 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population is inferred to number 5,800,000 mature individuals (Partners in Flight 2019).

Trend justification: The species has been undergoing a large, significant increase at an average rate of 1.1% per year between 1970 and 2017 (Partners in Flight 2019; Rosenberg et al. 2019). Short-term trends suggest a non-significant increase of 15% over the past ten years (Pardieck et al. 2018). These trends may be slightly affected by releases, but the species is precautionarily listed as increasing here, although it is acknowledged that the rate of increase could be lower than 15% over ten years.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Argentina	extant	introduced	yes
Australia	extant	introduced	yes
Canada	extant	native	yes
Chile	extant	introduced	yes
Mexico	extant	native	yes
New Zealand	extant	introduced	yes
USA	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Arable Land	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	resident
Desert	Hot	suitable	resident
Forest	Temperate	suitable	resident
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 2800 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Purpose	Scale
Food - human	subsistence, national
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international
Sport hunting/specimen collecting	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: California Quail Callipepla californica. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/california-quail-callipepla-californica on 02/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 02/01/2025.