[COMMON QUAIL]

Coturnix coturnix

Status:  No accepted records.

Taxonomy:  Five subspecies are currently recognized in its native Eurasian and African range (AviList 2025).

Common Quail is considered monophyletic since the split of Japanese Quail Coturnix japonica (McGowan et al 2023).

Comments: The only information regarding this species (rather than Japanese Quail) in Nebraska is of the release of 100 nominate C. c. coturnix near Sioux City, Iowa in the period 1877-1882, but this introduction was deemed a failure by 1885 (Wetherbee 1961).

The releases of some 76,600 coturnix quail in Nebraska beginning in 1957 (Mathisen and Mathisen 1960, Wetherbee 1961) involved birds purchased from breeders in Missouri and were Japanese Quail (C. japonica) (Wetherbee 1961).  Nebraska reports of Japanese Quail are discussed in that species’ account.

Literature Cited

AviList Core Team, 2025. AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025. https://doi.org/10.2173/avilist.v2025.

Mathisen, J., and A. Mathisen. 1960. History and status of introduced game birds in Nebraska. NBR 28: 19-22.

McGowan, P.J.K., G.M. Kirwan, E. de Juana, and P.F.D. Boesman. 2023. Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.comqua1.01.1

Wetherbee, D.K. 1961. Investigations in the Life History of the Common Coturnix. American Midland Naturalist 65: 168-186.

Recommended Citation

Silcock, W.R., and J.G. Jorgensen.  2025.  Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix). In Birds of Nebraska — Online. www.BirdsofNebraska.org

Birds of Nebraska – Online

Updated 7 Jul 2025