FLYMPH FORUM

An accepted substitute for fieldfare.The back and rump feathers are dun colored with a brownish list to them.

I think quail is an under used soft hackle. Some of the feathers are a bit more springy and less fluid than shore birds and hen but you get a great variety of colors and patterns and the feathers are small.


BTW - Upstate I think you have a photo of a California Quail and not a Mountain Quail. The feathers you are referring to though are very similar in both species.

When I first saw the skin at a fly shop in Missouri I thought it was a california quail too. The owner of the shop assured me that it was mountain quail and I bought 2 skins.One for myself and my good friend Bob (narcodog). Comparing pictures of the 2 birds convinced me that Charlie Reading the owner of thr shop in Benton Springs was correct.Bye the way his shop/museum was the most interesting shop I have been in for years.A far cry from todays modern sell flies a float trip and unusable expensive clothing
Fly shop.

Tom

Skues wrote that the fieldfare is browner and dustier than the substitutes mentioned by Pritt. About quail feathers he wrote: "There a number of seemingly nice hackles to be had from neck, wing, back and body of this beautiful little bird;" Mountain and similar quail seem to fit the bill as a substitute.

Mountain Quail do not have the spotted and outlined back of the neck hackles and the throat is red not black. They also don't have the mustard/black tipped belly feathers.

As a wildlife biologist I can assure you it is a California quail. The usual problem in cases like this is regional common names. Most often hunters grew up calling something whatever everyone else called them regionally.

Here is a comparison of the two from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. If a person needs information in bird identification this should be one of the first resources.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mou ... e/65610021

I think you are correct.

Tom

Tom - Would you mind if I added a few additional reference photos of a quail skin?

BTW, I am finding the discussion of these skins very helpful.

Go right ahead Ray.

Tom

I don't think for tying purposes it would make a bit of difference which bird you used in this case Tom. They are so close in color, the feathers you are using. Sorry for butting in with the correction, it was all in the name of goodwill. I would want someone to let me know if I was misidentifying something.

I have a nice CA quail skin.. but haven't found many flies that call for quail feathers...I tie my flies to fish and substitute at will, but it is nice to tie with the materials called for by the old recipes. Any particular patterns that quail could substitute for another bird?