The nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) of the avian brain is a functional analogue of the mammalian prefrontal cortex. It plays a central role in different types of associative learning, including conditioning and extinction learning. The NCL receives a dense innervation of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunopositive fibers, which form characteristic basket formations around their target somata. This distinctive innervation profile enabled the identification of the NCL in pigeons, chickens, zebra finches, crows and blackcaps. In this study, we characterized the catecholaminergic system of the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) by combining immunohistochemistry and fiber density analysis. We used TH immunolabeling to reveal the catecholaminergic projections, and dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DBH) to distinguish the noradrenergic neurons and fibers. The density of TH-immunopositive fibers in the caudal nidopallium were quantitatively analyzed with a custom-made software in order to delineate the boundaries of the NCL. We observed the characteristic basket formations in the NCL as well as the island fields of the caudal nidopallium (NCIF), a pallial subregion also identified in chicks and chickens, but not in the phylogenetically distant relatives such as pigeons, zebra finches and crows. Fiber density analysis of the DBH-immunopositive profiles were used to compare the innervation patterns of noradrenergic and other catecholaminergic projections in the NCL. Although the avian NCL exhibits considerable variability in structure, size and regional subdivisions across different species, our study indicates that the features of the NCL are rather comparable among Galliformes.