Gambel's quail

Governed by AZGFD's combined Quail Outlook press release (Gambel's, scaled, California, and Mearns's/Montezuma quail together, built on spring desert-quail roadside call-count surveys plus a Mearns's monsoon-condition assessment), published each year within days of the mid-October season opener (Oct 11 2023, Oct 15 2024, Oct 17 2025). Not yet published as of 2026-08-19; azgfd.com continued to return HTTP 403 to direct fetch on a fresh check this pass (same block the Tier A registry hit on 2026-08-18), so status is tracked via the expected annual timing rather than a direct page read. Expected mid-October 2026, alongside the season opener.

Governed by CDFW's combined Quail (California/Gambel's/Mountain) and Chukar Hunting Outlook press release — a new article/URL each year rather than one page overwritten in place; publish date has moved year to year (Oct 19 2024; Sept 19 2025). Not yet published as of a 2026-08-19 fresh check of the tag-archive pages (wildlife.ca.gov/News/Archive/tag/california-quail-hunting and .../tag/wild-chukar-hunting-in-california); based on the 2024-25 window, expected within the next several weeks.

Confirmed absence: CPW runs no dedicated survey or forecast infrastructure for Gambel's quail (restricted to Colorado's extreme southwest corner), which also falls outside the Eastern Plains Pheasant and Quail Forecast's geographic scope.

NDOW confirms no standalone population survey or forecast exists for Gambel's quail specifically, part of the same no-dedicated-survey bucket as California and mountain quail, ring-necked pheasant, and ruffed grouse. Two independent search passes (Tier A pass, plus a fresh targeted search this pass) found no NDOW-published quail-specific index -- a lower-confidence closure, not an explicit NDOW confirmed-absence statement.

Governing source is NMDGF's “Fall Roadside Survey” (combined scaled/Gambel's/bobwhite/Montezuma quail), described by NMDGF's own Turkey and Upland Game Biologist Casey Cardinal as being in “preliminary stages of implementation” as of 2022 reporting -- whether it has since matured into a regularly published index remains genuinely unconfirmed, not a confirmed absence. Stale-attribution catch this pass: a WebSearch result surfaced a Cardinal quote describing quail as having “rebounded extremely well” with “outstanding production,” read with no year label attached; direct-fetching the source article (wildlife.dgf.nm.gov, “Southeast New Mexico is your best bet for quail”) confirmed it is dated November 23, 2016, describing the 2016-17 season -- not a 2026 finding. No genuine 2026 NMDGF quail forecast (survey or narrative) was found. 2026 statewide drought conditions (D2 Severe Drought by late April, earliest snowmelt on record) point toward a weaker year by the same precipitation-driven logic used in Cardinal's prior commentary, but that is inference, not a published 2026 finding -- noted for color, not treated as a rating.

Lower-confidence call: Gambel's quail (far West Texas, Rio Grande corridor near El Paso/Presidio) is not broken out from TPWD's Roadside Quail Survey, which reports bobwhite and scaled quail only. The only quantitative data found is a decades-old academic baseline study (Sul Ross State University/TPWD, fieldwork 1987-92); a fresh 2026-08-19 search found no current TPWD-run program for the species.

Shares UDWR's Upland Game Annual Report with California quail (retrospective, most recent edition 2024-25); no 2025-26 edition found as of 2026-08-19.