A old friend of mine (long dead ) lived in was stationed in Turkey and hunted Migratory quail he called Coturnix .He said the Turks tried to kill every one they could because they would go back to Russia and they hated the Russians (his words ).Have any members here hunted or raised them ?I am pretty sure I saw a flock of them here . The only bird we have close to their looks are Hungarian partridge . Must be someone has turned some loose here .I doubt they will survive though I hope they do .He said one Turk hunter with a GSH pointer shot 43 straight without a miss with his old taped up and wired side by side .Our sharptails are similar in size but these were not sharptails .

What part of Turkey? Sinop? My Day was stationed there but all he mentioned hunting was Russian wild boars and catching Northern Pike.

Raised them years ago. They are tiny, not nearly the size of sharptails. I thing they were called Japanese quail back in the day. Keith will be along to fill in the details.

I shot them in Spain. From what I saw they do not covey up much. They are small short tailed birds, about the size of a starling, but a short tail.

He was in Ismir but hunted many places . He loved the country but his wife did not ! The Turks loved hunting so he was happy to live among them .There was 17 in this covey and they seemed to be runners as they did not flush .I was elk hunting when i saw them or i would have gladly ground swatted them to get a positive ID .

I raise them

They're about the size of a bobwhite, but they don't have a broody bone in them so I cannot see them surviving in the wild.

I’ve raised them in a pen.. they are a big quail.. much bigger than Bob white. Very delicious

I raised them in the early seventies found out they migrate had serval quail dinners.

I never thought of them them as runners. The penned birds are way bigger then the wild birds. The ones I shot were much smaller then a bobwhite. There are many different types of coturnix. There were two types in Spain.

I hope to learn where these birds (what ever they are called) came from as there are not what many people in this area so if they were planted locally it will come out .It is possible i suppose that they came here from east of the divide but I doubt it . Will report if i learn more and I thank all of you for your replies .

Coturnix quail have a huge range in the wild in Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. Most wild coturnix are only 4 to 6 ounces. I have seen domestic coturnix over 17 ounces. Domestic coturnix are twice as dumb as crap and have no access to protective head gear, to paraphrase "Fairy Tales From The Dark Side". It would be nearly impossible to use them to establish a wild population. Only a very few domestic coturnix, occasionally, go broody.

The birds you saw are likely an introduced partridge or pheasant if they are grouse sized.

Coturnix are good to eat and very easy to raise. I like them better than bobwhite for eating. I've raised a little over 60,000 coturnix some years.

Keith

I've raised jumbo coturnix, just processed some a few weeks ago in fact. Great for meat and fun little eggs but not what I would call worthy to raise and release to the wild. It's hard to imagine wild ones out there. Mine have no street smarts lol!

I sold some many yrs ago to a guy in ky who released them and he said they hung around the barnyard like chickens.