The rotund, chicken-like Northern Bobwhite, or Bobwhite Quail, is an uncommon and declining species in many parts of the country, classified as endangered. This reduction is due to the fact that agricultural lands, which the bird favors, are also in the same state of affairs. A flocking species, males will sing from a low perch. If disturbed, the species will all flush together, similar to the habits of the Ring-necked Pheasant.
There are several related kin, including the Eastern, Great Plains, Masked, and Florida subspecies, noticeable differences in the adult males.
These birds, as breeders, enjoy a diverse cover which includes woodlands with a brushy understory, cover crops in the agricultural off-season, including grassy nesting cover, and cultivated crop areas with a food source, dusting areas similar to Wild Turkey habits, and a source of water.
Male Northern Bobwhite,
Great Plains and Texas subspecies
Photographed in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas
Bobwhites can sometimes breed quite early for their age, depending upon adequate conditions. Young and their parents stay together even after the young are old enough to carry on without them, and coveys are formed by non-breeding birds. Six birds are needed to form their circular roosting formations, which is natural for them both for the conservation of heat and for predator watch.
The diet is usually vegetable, seeds of undesirable weeds, especially ragweed, corn, acorns, sunflowers, and a number of other items. This bird is indispensable to farmers, as it picks up its food solely by scavenging many seeds of weeds. It also consumes its share of animals like the grasshopper, snails, locusts, slugs, and several others. It requires grit to be used as a digestion aid.
The biggest enemy of this bird is pesticide related, and the change in agricultural diversity, which causes destruction of its habitat. It has the same predator problem as most ground nesters, which includes rats, raccoons, domestic animals, snakes, and several others.
Female Northern Bobwhite,
Great Plains and Texas subspecies
Photographed in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas
The population has been declining, and an important help to the Masked Bobwhite has been the work of the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, OK. They have been raising chicks from the egg and relocating them to Southeast Arizona and New Mexico. Their decline was caused by cattle grazing practices, as fodder was unable to regenerate quickly enough. More than once, they were extirpated from their natural habitat, so several breeding facilities were brought on board by US Fish and Wildlife. Our Oklahoma facility is one of many trying to save this important and valued grassland bird, where it will never be forgotten.
Masked Bobwhite
Photographed in Southeast Arizona
The Northern Bobwhite hybridizes with the Scaled Quail in Kansas and Texas.
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