Mr Rawlings said the Makoura Stream cuts through his property and one day he saw a "rather rotund" bird with a quiff feather on its head walking along the stream bank.
"When it got to the end of the garden it flew off towards Sussex Street.
"By doing some research on the internet, I identified it as a California quail.
"I had never seen one before, so it was good to read that someone else had a sighting and that my identification was probably correct," Mr Rawlings said.
Bird watcher Tenick Dennison, who lives in Renall Street, also came across a California quail in his garden earlier this week and other sightings of the birds - alongside State Highway 2 near Tauherenikau - have been reported.
Dr Dennison said quail had been on his property once before several years ago and it was "wonderful to see them back; they are a nice little bird".
He said the lack of devastating floods in the last year or so had probably helped boost the quail population.
"Their usual habitat is along river beds, they live and nest in broom and feed on seeds," he said.
Dr Dennison said the birds have also been spotted in the Henley Lake wetland areas.
"But that is fairly close to the Ruamahanga River anyway."
The male bird has a striking black face bordered with white and a conspicuous plume whereas the female is duller in colour with a less obvious top-knot.
As far as bird call is concerned, the male call has been likened to several words in English including Dick Vercoe, Chicago, tobacco and McPherson but New Zealand Birds Online maintains the call is more accurately rendered as "qua quergo".
