My Lovely Spot (Button Quail)

[Celeris]

I got this picture during my Spot's recovery from her mysterious leg/hip injury. Having her confined to my teensy hospital cage meant frequent bedding changes, so I was letting her roam my office while I got her house all cleaned up. Figured that would make a good time to try to snap some pictures of her, since their usual behavior when the Great Eye/Soul Sucker/camera is "staring at them" in their cages is to run and hide, making it hard to get a clear shot. Out in the big, wide room, she was a bit calmer and more inclined to just watch me curiously.

And because it's one of my few decent photos of my birds, wanted to share it!

[Flight Feathers]

Cute!

[Stuart whiting]

Very nice little Chinese painted quail ( button quail ) Celeris

Thanks for sharing

[Babs _Owner]

Celeris

I'm so glad she was able to mend up. Pretty girl. We have members who love keeping quail. Debbie has a fun flock that free roam her property and even march the troops into the kitchen for visits.

Seem like such fun birds to watch.

[lovezebs]

Celeris

What a cute little girl!

I'm so glad to hear that she's feeling well enough to go on walk about. Hopefully whatever the injury was, it's on it's way to healing and a full recovery .

[sparrowsong98]

I thought about getting button quail. For zebra finches, I never even looked at more than pictures, and was very surprised at the size. I thought I would check out some pictures before emailing the person beforehand. The first picture that pulled up was a bloody gash in thehead of a button quail, caused by its companion.

[Celeris]

Babs
They are definitely a far cry from finches! I used to think my finches were "paranoid" until I got into the quail, haha! They have such interesting and unique personalities, though. I do enjoy them quite a bit--especially now that I've thinned the flock to a more manageable number.

@lovezebs
Me too! She had me quite worried for a while there. Glad my finch habit gave me the equipment to hospitalize her for a bit!

@sparrowsong98
They can be nasty little critters when provoked. I wonder if that picture was from the quail's fellow birds, though, or if it may have come from a head bonk... These guys leap straight into the air when startled and have been known to scalp themselves and even break their necks by hitting the top of their cage. (A lot of people attach foam to the top of their enclosures for that reason.)

They can and will kill each other under the right circumstances, though. A friend of mine recently had a hen go off the deep end and kill her mate--three hours prior, they'd been snuggling. I enjoy them, but definitely feel like a lot of the educational material out there doesn't entirely brace you for their crazy.