California Quail Eating Daisies

California Quail Video Clips

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The first male California Quail arrived in our backyard wildlife habitat on April 3, 2009. This video shows the quail eating the flowers of the English Daisy or Bellis perennis. According to Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, this cultivated ornamental species was introduced from Europe and is now widely established along the coast. Daisy, or 'day's eye,' is from the Anglo-Saxon doeges-sege meaning 'eye of the day' because the flowers open and close with changes in daylight, or because the yellow disk resembles the sun. Bellis means 'pretty' and there is a legend that the genus was named after the Belides, one of whom died in fear of Vertumnus, the god of spring, and sank to the earth in the form of a daisy."

You can read more about the California Quail in the Backyard Birds section.