It's somewhat surprising that there are zero California quail in San Francisco, what with them being the city's official bird.
The portly bird's distinctive call — that some say sounds like "chi-CA-go!" while others hear "cow-COW-cow!" — hasn't been heard in San Francisco for years.
The sole survivor of the species in the city was last seen in Golden Gate Park in 2017, and named Ishi by birders, after the last known member of California's Native American Yahi tribe.
But now efforts are underway to bring the species, which has been described as having the stature of a chicken and the bravado of a peacock, back to the city. The Presidio Trust is currently making plans to reintroduce the native species to San Francisco, reports the SF Examiner.
California quail are plump, sociable vegans who like to hang out in "coveys" of six to 60 birds. They are quiet birds, and only make their three-syllable unique call when looking for a mate, which some birders translate as "Where are you?" or "Come right here!"
Beyond their rotundity, the native birds are probably most identifiable by their topknot, the plume of six feathers that droops over the quail's forehead and rocks as they bob along, which is their normal way of getting around. Quail do have the ability to fly, but choose not to unless there is an emergency, such as the sighting of one of their enemies — raccoons, skunks and cats.
A century ago, thousands of California quail strutted their stuff around San Francisco. In 1902 ornithologist Florence Merriam Bailey observed:
"The brushy parts of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco abound with quail, and from the benches one can watch the squads of plump hen-like little creatures as they move about with stately tread or stand talking sociably in low monosyllables. If they hear a footstep on the walk they start up and hurry across the path like hens before a wagon."
As the city's streets, buildings and traffic encroached on the open dunes of the west side of San Francisco, the birds dwindled in numbers over the decades, but found refuge in two large, still green, open-spaces — the Presidio and Golden Gate Park.
The population plummeted further in the 1990s and by the early 2000s there were only a handful of the species left in the city. The last one to be seen in the Presidio, named Fajita, was handed over to San Francisco Zoo in 2008.
Ishi disappeared from Golden Gate Park in 2017, and then there were none.
“It was a tragedy because there were so many people invested in saving the quail,” Lew Stringer, the Presidio Trust’s associate director of natural resources, told the SF Examiner. “It’s a loss we would love to reverse.”
That reversal may be coming soon. The Presidio Trust is currently working with the San Francisco Estuary Institute to analyze the viability of reintroducing California quail in the near future, specifically to the Presidio.
The trust acquired the former military base in 1996 and since then has removed landfill and cement, planted native species and restored wetlands to the park, making the habitat welcoming to our long lost plump friend.
If things go according to plan San Francisco's official bird, and its distinct call, may soon return to the city.
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December 25, 2020 at 03:03AM
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San Francisco's official bird is locally extinct, but may be reintroduced to the city - SF Gate
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