Field guides draw the topknot as one object, and at any normal viewing distance that is what it looks like. Close examination shows six distinct feathers, curved forward over the bill and lying against one another so tightly that the group reads as a single unit.
The plume is sexually dimorphic. Males carry a longer, blacker topknot along with a black face bordered in white; females are plainer brown with a shorter plume. Both sexes use the covey call, a three-note chi-ca-go, to keep a scattered group in contact.
California quail also have a digestive quirk worth noting. They carry protozoans in the caecum that help break down plant material, and chicks acquire these microbes by pecking at adult droppings rather than inheriting them, a transmission route that matters for hand-rearing.