Here’s a baby California quail I raised and released a few years ago. He came in all alone, during a big storm. Quail are extremely social, so during the first few days he formed a bond with my hand and thought it was his mommy. I would “peck” at the food with a finger to encourage him to eat, and then he would jump into my other curled fingers and snuggle there. He would follow my hand everywhere.

No other quail came in for a while, so in the meantime he made friends with a runty baby chick (who, incidentally, grew into a gorgeous 12 lb rooster named Lancelot) despite the chick being about fifteen times his size. I should have gotten photos of them snuggling together. The baby quail would disappear into Lancelot’s fluff, sometimes with just his tiny head peeking out.

Eventually, more quail came in and he was released in a group with seven others. Their release story is special, too, but I’ll save that for another post.