Is anyone as excited as I am for the start of quail season? Okay, probably not, but you should be!
At least in the Bay Area, California Quail get a lot skulkier late in the fall. They start emerging and becoming more visible in the spring. My best guess is that they spend more time under cover in the winter because there are more hawks and other birds of prey in the area. Come springtime, the males find prominent perches from which to call and claim their territories.
After the chicks hatch, the males get out of child rearing by going about their very important “sentry duty” in which they do their best to look dashing while the females tend to the chicks. The females occasionally take over from the males to show that they too can look quite spiffy up on a tall perch. (Readers are encouraged to check an actual wildlife authority before relying on any of these facts.)