Texas · UplandScaled quail

Scaled quail in Texas is genuinely two subspecies occupying two separate parts of the state, not one uniform western-Texas range, per TSHA's quail handbook: the Arizona subspecies (Callipepla squamata pallida) 'inhabits desert shrub and shortgrass habitat to the west and north' -- the Trans-Pecos, High Plains, Rolling Plains, and Edwards Plateau -- while the chestnut-bellied subspecies (C. s. castanogastris) occupies 'the Rio Grande plain from Brownsville northward to the vicinity of Del Rio,' i.e. the South Texas brush country, well south of and disconnected from the Arizona subspecies' range. TPWD's own quail-forecast survey data corroborates the western population as the state's strongest: the Trans-Pecos 'is home to the largest scaled quail population in Texas' at roughly 20 birds/route in recent surveys, versus a smaller but still-real High Plains population (rising from a 15-year mean of 3.42 to 7.75 birds/route) and only a minor presence in the bobwhite-dominated Rolling Plains. Statewide, the species' range is annual-rainfall-limited: habitat receiving more than about 27 inches/year of rain becomes too densely vegetated for scaled quail, which is why its Texas range stays confined to the drier western half of the state plus the South Texas brush country's chestnut-bellied pocket.