Grass seeds are preferred by quail during fall, but they spoil rapidly and are depleted quickly. Persistent, hard-coated seeds of legumes become staple food items by winter. Acorns, when available, are preferred over all other foods from fall through early spring. Early spring diets shift from seeds to insects and leafy green vegetation. Insects remain an important food item to adults and young throughout summer and into early fall.
Chicks require a high-protein diet for rapid growth and for the development of flight feathers.
This need is met by feeding almost exclusively on insects during the first two to three weeks after hatching. Fruits and berries, also called soft mast items, are eaten by adults during summer. Quail food items must be exposed on relatively bare soil and in open-structured vegetation. Quail scratch poorly and are impeded by extremely dense vegetation. Seeds buried beneath deep piles of leaf litter, regardless of their abundance, are unavailable to quail.