This Report is a Best of Wendy Langhans
It truly is a “feather in his cap” and it does looks a bit like elbow macaroni. But technically, it’s known as a head plume, or more commonly, a “top knot”, a head ornament that consists of six overlapping black feathers in the shape of a comma. It’s hard to miss - it sticks right out of their forehead - and in our Santa Clarita Valley, when you’ve seen the comma-shaped top knot and heard a call that sounds like “Chi-CA-go”, it’s almost certain you’ve seen a California quail.
