Im sure many of you already know how to distinguish a juvenile from a mature bird but there's probably a few of you that will benefit from this post. Its extremely simple, quail don't loose there juvenile primary covert feathers until the molt after there first breeding season. Ive uploaded two pictures, take a look at them. the bird with solid color and more rounded tipped primary coverts is a mature bird that has lived through at least one breeding season. The other wing is of a juvenile first year bird that has not yet lived through its first breeding season. note the buff nonsolid and more pointed tipped primary coverts. I hope some of you learned something from this. Its useful to know if your taking mature or juvenile birds from a covey and can help you determan the health of that covey. Valley quail in California have a 75% turnover rate, so you want to be taking more juvenile birds than mature birds. *note* (the primary coverts are the small feathers above the primary flight feathers. In my pictures it is the area above my thumb)
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