Quail in California
California quail (Callipepla californica), mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus), and Gambel's quail (Callipepla gambelii): three birds, three kinds of country, one 10-bird daily bag.
Quail is the bird most California upland hunters mean when they say they're going hunting, and this state is unusual in handing you three of them. The California quail — the state bird — lives in oak, chaparral, and brushy farm edges from the Oregon line to Mexico. Mountain quail live higher, in chaparral-and-conifer country, and walk downhill as the season goes on. Gambel's quail take over in the southeastern deserts. Matt grew up hunting California quail in the Central Valley, and Peter's cocker, Alan, found his first wild birds in the oak and chamise around Lake Berryessa. Mountain quail and Gambel's we are still learning, and this page says so where it matters.
A male California quail in dry grass in Sacramento County. Photo: Hawk T. / CC BY 4.0 — source
2026–27 Season at a Glance
Most of the state opens Saturday, Oct. 17, and every zone closes Jan. 31.
Zone Q1 — mountain quail only: Sept. 12–Oct. 16. Q1 is 15 whole counties — Alpine, Butte, Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Tehama, and Trinity, valley floor included — plus the national-forest side of 11 Sierra counties.
Zone Q1 — all quail: Oct. 17–Jan. 31.
Zone Q2 — all quail: Sept. 26–Jan. 31. Q2 is Marin, Napa, Solano, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties.
Zone Q3 — all quail: Oct. 17–Jan. 31, everywhere else.
Daily bag: 10 quail in any combination of species. Possession is triple the daily bag.
Shooting hours: one-half hour before sunrise to sunset.
Paperwork: a California hunting license and the upland game bird validation (not required on a junior license). HIP is not required for quail.
Shot: nonlead only, statewide.
Checked against CDFW's 2026–27 seasons and limits on Oct. 7, 2026. Zone lines follow county lines and national forest boundaries — confirm yours on CDFW's quail zone map. Archery and falconry seasons run separately; the CDFW upland game bird page is the authority.
Know the Birds
California quail. Plump and gray, with a scaled belly and a forward-curling teardrop plume. Males have a black throat outlined in white and a chestnut cap; hens are plainer. A healthy covey runs 20 to 40 birds by the October opener, and the three-note chi-ca-go assembly call is how you find them again after a flush.
Mountain quail. California's largest quail: slate-blue head and breast, chestnut throat, bold white bars on chestnut flanks, and a single straight plume. Coveys are small, six to 15 birds, and they run uphill before they fly. They breed high and walk down the mountain through fall and winter — by the accounts we've read, as much as 5,000 vertical feet — so the July country and the December country are not the same.
Gambel's quail. The desert cousin of the California quail, with the same teardrop plume. The male's belly is plain cream with a black center patch instead of scales, and his cap is a brighter rust. They live along desert washes with mesquite and catclaw, close to water.
The zones make identification matter. In Zone Q1, mountain quail open in September while California quail on the same slopes wait for Oct. 17, and our September report from the High Sierra shows how that overlap plays out on one mountain. The plume settles it in good light: a forward-curling teardrop on California and Gambel's, a straight plume on mountain quail.
Where They Live in California
California quail are in nearly every county below the high mountains. Hunters took an estimated 221,633 in 2023–24, led by Tehama, Kern, and Monterey counties (CDFW harvest survey). The big public ground runs through the Inner Coast Range — Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, the east side of the Mendocino National Forest, and the BLM land around Cache Creek and Knoxville — plus the Sierra foothill oak belt, the Sacramento Valley edges, the Central Coast and Los Padres National Forest, and the Southern California foothills. Several of these straddle zone lines, so check yours on the map before you go.
Mountain quail follow the seam where chaparral gives way to conifer, roughly 3,500 to 6,500 feet in the Sierra in early fall. The sources we trust put them in five regions: the Klamath Mountains and Trinity Alps, the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, the southern Cascades, the higher Mendocino and Los Padres national forests, and the Peninsular Ranges.
Gambel's quail live in the Colorado and Mojave deserts of the southeast. The Mojave National Preserve is open to hunting under CDFW rules; Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in the middle of Gambel's country, is not. Our public land designations guide explains the difference.
Two tools help with all three. Our Harvest Map shows the 2023–24 harvest by county, and its fire layer shows the young burns — three to five years after a fire, often the best quail cover around.
How They're Hunted
California quail are the bird we have the most time on, and the cornerstone has the full version. The short one:
Lead with your ears. Two quiet minutes at first light tell you where the coveys are. Mark the assembly call and come in from downwind.
Hunt the edges, not the middle. Grass into brush, oak into bunchgrass, the lower lip of the chaparral.
Work the singles. The covey flush is chaos. The 20 minutes after it, while scattered birds call to regroup, is the hunt.
Slow the dog down. California quail outrun a hard-charging dog and flush wild out the far side of the cover.
For mountain quail, the accounts we trust point hunters to logging roads and fuel breaks at first light, and to getting above a running covey so it flushes downhill into open shooting. For Gambel's, they describe desert washes, a lot of walking, and birds that run even harder than valley quail. We'll write those two up in our own voice once we have seasons behind them.
Ten birds is a real number on good ground on a good day. Four birds and good dog work is a good day, too.
Start Here
The California Valley Quail Hunting Guide. The country, the annual cycle, and the five rules we hunt by.
The California Mountain Quail Hunting Guide. The elevation ladder, the five regions, and what the record says about hunting them.
Planning the 2026–27 California Quail and Chukar Season. The zone-by-zone dates and limits, with the map.
Everything We've Written on Quail
Planning and places
California's Coastal Sage Scrub for Valley Quail: Monterey to Santa Barbara
How to Scout Public Land for Upland Birds Without Leaving Your Couch
Hunting the Overlap: Sooty Grouse, Band-Tails, and Quail in the High Sierra in September
Habitat and scouting
Scouting California Quail in Spring: What to Look For Before the Season Starts
Reading May Greenup: What Bunchgrass Tells You About Fall Valley Quail
California Wildfire Burn Scars and Upland Bird Habitat: A 2026 Planning Map
The Four Weeks That Decide October: Quail Prep While Dove Is Still Open
Dogs and gear
What I Carry for Alan: A California Bird-Dog Kit That Actually Works
Nonlead Ammunition for California Upland Hunters: 2026–27 Supply Planning
Conservation and the kitchen
The Presidio Quail Reintroduction: A NorCal Conservation Win Worth Watching
The Torn-Skin Fix: Pan-Fried California Quail with Quick Chimichurri
Further reading: CDFW's Guide to Hunting Quail in California, and Cornell's species accounts for California, mountain, and Gambel's quail.
Other California Upland Birds
Doves · Pheasant · Chukar · Sooty and ruffed grouse · Band-tailed pigeon · White-tailed ptarmigan · Wilson's snipe · All species
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Photo credit: male California quail, Sacramento County — Hawk T. / CC BY 4.0 — source