Earlier this week, my family and I became unexpected foster parents to a baby quail.
I was working out in my garage on my lunchbreak, and saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. It was a baby quail! There was an excessive heat warning that day, with temps in our area hitting 115+, so I put the bird in a paper bag and began looking in the desert area around my house for its quail parents. I have seen many over the years, but none lately. We have snakes, large lizards, roadrunners, eagles, hawks, vultures, dogs, and cats in the area that eat the birds and eggs.
After going out several times over the next few hours, I assumed that the baby had been abandoned, was lost, or perhaps its parents perished. I did some online reading to determine if it was advisable to try to foster the bird or put it under a bush. With an estimated 85% mortality rate, I decided to keep it. We fed it crushed up oatmeal and pecans until I could get some bird feed. The baby also ate some crickets my daughter and I caught in our backyard. It was quite a sight to watch it stomping the insects out and viciously swinging its head around like a feathered shark as it chowed down.
After a couple of days of uncertainty, the baby seems to be flourishing AEB it flapping its wings, chirping, running around, and general energy level increasing. The bird is eating and drinking constantly, and has had stools. I have changed out the bedding and habitat daily for cleanliness. I let the kids name the baby yesterday. After debating about "Cotton Candy", "Lucky", "Chick", and "Buddy", the kids agreed on "Birdie".
Wish us luck!