Introduced in 1818 as a gift to King Kamehameha from V. M. Golovin, the California quail has established throughout the Hawaiian Islands. It is a small (9 to11 inches) plump game bird with gray brown body feathers, white creamy chestnut scales on the belly, and males have a black face outlined with white. Females and young birds are browner overall and don’t have the facial markings. Look for their distinctive comma shaped top feather.

The map below shows hotspots along our birding trails where you might see this bird.