While never very shy, even in their normal chaparral haunts, these birds — with manners quietly elegant as their plumage — soon become tame and friendly around houses where food is forthcoming. Eugene Law says they soon learned a swinging arm meant a tossed crumb and so keen was their sight that a bit of bread held up in the fingers was detected by birds twenty-five feet away. They were not afraid of chipmunks, merely sidestepping and sometimes facing them with erected crest and so compelling retreat. Young birds were more confiding than the oldsters and squeaked plaintively for food outside the closed door until admitted.
Plateau region of western United States; from eastern Oregon, southwestern Montana and Colorado; south to southern California, southern Arizona and western Texas.