Well fed and well dressed
This rather corpulent fellow is a male Gambel's Quail. Both sexes sport the topknot. And you’d think that fascinator or topknot on the male would be used to attract females. But a study found that the females really don’t care about the size of his doodad. Instead she looks to his foraging prowess and overall size. HOWEVER, they are a bit of a social species and the males have a pecking order. The guy with the biggest topknot wins the top position in the pecking order. Sadly, they figured this out by shortening the topknot of the top male and found his exalted position was reduced to that of a peasant quail. 😒. Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden with a cactus bokeh
Well fed and well dressed
This rather corpulent fellow is a male Gambel's Quail. Both sexes sport the topknot. And you’d think that fascinator or topknot on the male would be used to attract females. But a study found that the females really don’t care about the size of his doodad. Instead she looks to his foraging prowess and overall size. HOWEVER, they are a bit of a social species and the males have a pecking order. The guy with the biggest topknot wins the top position in the pecking order. Sadly, they figured this out by shortening the topknot of the top male and found his exalted position was reduced to that of a peasant quail. 😒. Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden with a cactus bokeh