Bird Watching: Daily pic. Vol. #222, 1 by NM_Jane

NM_Jane wrote:
I have a question that you bird experts might be able to answer.

I have several families of Gambel's Quail that live in or near my yard. All of the photos and illustrations I've seen of this type of quail show them as having a single top knot feather; however, I have one family in which all of the quail (both male and female) have two or more top knot feathers. I'm just wondering how common an occurrence this is; and if this might be some type of genetic mutation from the norm.

Here's a picture of one of the male quail that I took this morning. He only has two top knot feathers; but some of them have as many as 4 feathers.