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Northern Bobwhite

(Colinus virginianus)

September 1999 Fish and Wildlife Habitat Management Leaflet Number 9

WILDLIFE HABITAT COUNCILSM

© 1988 WHC

General Information

The northern bobwhite, commonly referred to as bobwhite quail, has

long been a favorite gamebird throughout the eastern United States,

and is a welcomed upland ground dweller on farms and rural landscapes with its infamous call of “bob-white!” Highly social and

displaying gregarious activity nearly year-round, bobwhites thrive in

an array of varying early successional habitats. Its affinity for a

variety of early successional communities makes the bobwhite both

unique and fairly manageable.

The bobwhite’s popularity has decreased little throughout the years.

However, bobwhite populations have decreased significantly in

recent years, as much as 70 to 90 percent in some areas. Among the

most influential impacts reducing northern bobwhite numbers continues to be the loss of nesting and protective

cover. The removal of overgrown hedgerows, fencerows, and windbreaks from agricultural fields and rural landscapes; the conversion of open, native grasslands, woodland edge, and other idle habitat to introduced grasses and

developed lands; clean farming operations and the increased use of agrichemicals; increased grazing pressure; intensive fire control; removal of timber and brush over broad areas; and the spraying and mowing of highway and utility

rights-of-way has reduced or eliminated bobwhite populations from traditionally occupied areas across the United

States. Because of the bobwhite’s dependency on and use of multiple types of adjoining habitats, its presence in an

area is often indicative of vegetation diversity and “edge” components that exist between varying habitat types.

Managing for northern bobwhite can significantly benefit other wildlife species dependent upon an array of differing habitat types growing adjacent to or within close proximity to one another. For example, populations of a

number of early successional songbird species that use habitats similar to that of the bobwhite are also declining.

Habitat management directed at improving conditions for the bobwhite may also help these songbird species

populations.

This leaflet is designed to serve as an introduction to the habitat

requirements of the northern bobwhite and to assist landowners

and managers in the development of a comprehensive northern

bobwhite management plan. The success of any species management plan depends on targeting the specific needs of the

desired species and analyzing the designated habitat area to

ensure that all required elements are present. This leaflet

provides a number of practical habitat management activities

that can be conducted on private lands to boost local bobwhite

quail populations and encourages involving fish and wildlife

professionals in management planning to identify additional

management actions needed over time.

Photo courtesy of Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation

Northern bobwhite breeding range
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Range

The northern bobwhite is a non-migratory, year-round resident species. Bobwhite quail are found throughout most

of the eastern and mid-western United States from southern Ontario and southern Maine, west to southern Minnesota, southern South Dakota, southeastern Wyoming, south to the Gulf coast and eastern Mexico to Guatemala.

Small, introduced populations exist in eastern Oregon and Washington, western Idaho, and southern Arizona.

Habitat Requirements

General

Quail occupy a wide variety of early

successional habitats, including active and

fallow crop fields, pastures, old fields,

native grasslands, hedgerows, brushy

fencerows, woodlands with grass and forb

ground cover, open meadows with a shrub

or brushy component, cut-over timberlands, roadway and powerline rights-of-way,

wooded riparian areas, brushy canyons and

hillsides, and rural residential areas. The

role of regular habitat disturbance in

maintaining productive bobwhite habitat is

extremely important. Disturbances, such as

fire, timber harvest, grazing, and disking,

are necessary to maintain the early successional habitats used by bobwhites. A

principle aspect of these early successional

habitats is the presence of grasses and forbs that provide ground cover while allowing birds to move along the

ground easily. A variety of early successional communities growing adjacent to one another and containing defined

edges among them provide the bobwhite with ideal nesting, brood-rearing, feeding, loafing, travel, and escape cover.

Diversity in habitat types within an area is among the greatest factors affecting northern bobwhite populations. The

continued loss and conversion of hedgerows, overgrown fencerows, early successional grassland, and open woodland

nesting and foraging habitat remains the largest threat to the future of northern bobwhite populations nationwide.

Preserving and properly managing grasslands, woodlands, and other rural cover types as well as the edges between

cover types can help landowners boost local bobwhite populations and benefit other wildlife species that rely on

similar habitat.

Food

Northern bobwhites forage in the early morning after sunrise and more heavily in the two hours prior to sunset.

Bobwhites rely on a multitude of food items, consuming a variety of wild and cultivated seeds, fruits, leaves, stems

and insects. Roughly 85 percent of a juvenile bobwhite’s diet consists of insects and other animal matter, and chicks

feed almost exclusively on insects during the first two weeks of life. In contrast, 85 percent of an adult bird’s diet

consists of vegetation. In fall and winter months, the seeds of native and exotic annual plants, such as ragweeds,

sunflowers, panicgrass, foxtail, spurges, bull grasses, crotons, beggar’s ticks, chittamwood, partridge pea, milk pea,

smartweeds, and dayflowers are consumed, as well as the seeds of oaks, black locust, pines, and ash. Cultivated

plants consumed include soybeans, grain sorghum, wheat, buckwheat, millet, rye, corn, lespedezas (bicolor, Kobe,

and Korean), cowpeas, dropseeds, prairie clovers, mesquite, tick trefoil, and peanuts. Wild fruits, such as mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, bayberries, huckleberries, muscadines, wax myrtle, hackberry, grapes,

A diversity of early sucessional plant communities exposed to regular disturbance is

key to providing ideal bobwhite habitat.
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

plums, rose hips, pokeberries, persimmons, and the berries of dogwood, poison ivy, sumac, greenbrier and many

others are consumed in spring and summer. Leaves and stems of succulent green plants are also consumed. Invertebrates, such as grasshoppers, leafhoppers, flies, mosquitoes, aphids, potato beetles, spiders, and ants comprise over

20 percent of the summer diet of adult females, while adult male summer diets include only about five percent

animal matter. However, bobwhites are opportunistic feeders and will consume available or abundant food items

before searching for scarce and more preferred foods.

Where appropriate, the native and cultivated plants and fruits may be planted or encouraged to enhance vegetation that

already exists in or around grassland, woodland, and edge habitats. Adding these species to those already present will

enhance food availability for northern bobwhites. Field borders and hedgerows provide opportunities to enhance bobwhite

quail habitat on many farms, ranches, and other private properties.

Important northern bobwhite food items. The following items are important foods in the diet of the northern bobwhite.

The items below comprise a skeleton list of common food items; they DO NOT represent all foods preferred or consumed.

Insects and other

arthropods:

grasshoppers leafhoppers

flies mosquitoes

aphids potato beetles

spiders snails

ants and others

Wild fruits:

mulberries raspberries

blackberries strawberries

bayberries huckleberries

muscadines wax myrtle

hackberry grapes

plums rose hips

pokeberries persimmons

berries of :

dogwood poison ivy

sumac greenbrier

and others

Cultivated plants:

soybeans grain sorghum

wheat buckwheat

millet rye

corn cowpeas

dropseeds prairie clovers

tick trefoil peanuts

lespedezas:

bicolor Kobe

Korean

Seeds:

ragweeds sunflowers

panicgrass crabgrass

Johnsongrass foxtail

spurges bull grasses

crotons beggar’s ticks

chittamwood smartweeds

dayflowers oaks

black locust pines

sweetgum ash

legumes such as:

partridge pea

milk pea

and others

Nesting Cover

Native prairie bunch grasses, such as big and little bluestems, sideoats grama, switchgrass, Indiangrass and broom

sedge provide the most preferred nesting cover for northern bobwhites. These grasses grow into dense vegetation

communities with open, passable alleyways near the ground. These bunch grasses provide the best habitat architecture for nesting quail, as nests are built at the base of grass tufts. Other grasses and forbs that grow in bunches or

clumps are also used by bobwhites for nesting. Sod-forming grasses, such as fescue and brome grass, form matted,

dense vegetation that is of little habitat value to bobwhites. Residual cover (vegetation left standing from the

previous growing season) is an essential element of productive bobwhite nesting habitat. One- or two-year-old

residual clumps of grass are preferred over younger or older stands as they provide necessary overhead cover for nest

concealment and commonly do not contain much ground litter (matted grasses) that hinders ground travel. Matted

grasses also encourage the build-up of rodent populations (e.g., cotton rats in the southeast) which are major

predators of bobwhite nests.

Bobwhites use shallow depressions lined with dry grasses located in grass clumps that range from 6 to 18 inches in

height. Nests are usually established within 30 feet of a brushy, woody, or other edge component where habitat

types change, and within 50 feet of bare soil. This edge serves as a corridor along which birds can travel between
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

cover types. Nesting sites are commonly found in brushy corners of old fields, along the edges of woodlands, and in

windbreaks, thickets, and other areas providing suitable cover. For grassland nesting communities, 250 nesting

clumps per acre, or one clump per 13- x 13-foot area is recommended. Assessing an area’s bobwhite nesting potential can be accomplished by walking the area in a back and forth manner to determine the distance between nesting

clumps. Grassland communities containing clumps growing every 15 to 20 steps is considered adequate nesting

bobwhite cover.

Brood-rearing Cover

Brood-rearing cover differs from nesting

cover because it is generally more open at

ground level to enable movement of

quail chicks. As much as 70 percent of

brood-rearing cover can be open, bare

ground. Whereas good nesting habitat

has generally not been disturbed for two

or three growing seasons, the best brood

habitat occurs within the first year

following disturbance of an area through

burning, disking, timber harvest, or

other means. Overhead concealment,

diversity of low-growing green foliage,

and abundant insects are required broodrearing cover characteristics. Recently

burned grasslands, old field communities, weedy field borders, legume

plantings, and small grain fields provide

good brood-rearing cover.

Loafing and Winter Cover

Loafing cover provides protection from predators and adverse winter weather during daylight hours when bobwhites

are not feeding. Shrubby or woody cover is preferred for loafing, but tall grasses and weed patches may be adequate

when available. Woody cover is more important as winter cover in mid-western and northern areas where snow

cover can bury winter foods. Thickets of blackberry, American plum, fragrant sumac, shinnery oak, sand plum,

honeysuckle, wild cherry, and dogwood growing from 3 to 6 feet in height provide loafing cover. Wild grape,

greenbrier and other vines growing to create dense overhead cover and open, passable ground cover make up good

loafing cover as well. Small patches of bare ground on which individuals can dust to remove parasites and excess

oils from feathers increases bobwhite use of loafing cover. Loafing cover needs can be generally met with a 30- to

50-foot wide, irregularly-shaped plot of land containing clumps of grass and overhead cover.

Escape Cover

Tangled thickets, dense grasses, shrubs, and other vegetation that conceals quail from predators are used as escape

cover when located close to travel lanes and nesting, brood-rearing, and loafing cover.

Water

Daily foraging activities, the types of foods eaten, dew, snow, and water produced during digestion provide northern

bobwhites with an adequate amount of water. Open water, such as ponds, streams, livestock tanks and overflow

from windmills may be used during periods of low rainfall, or when available.

The growth form of native bunch grasses provides excellent nesting sites for bobwhites.

Open passageways among grass clumps also enable bobwhites to travel easily and safely

along the ground.
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Interspersion of Habitat Components

Perhaps the most critical aspect of northern

bobwhite management is creating good

habitat interspersion, or mixture of different

cover types. Suitable foraging, nesting,

brood-rearing, loafing, and escape cover, each

located within close proximity to one another,

is essential to attract bobwhites to and maintain existing populations in an area. A

complex of crop fields, pastures, and meadows

containing native bunch grasses, odd areas,

hedgerows, overgrown fencerows, and woodland edge comprise a mixture of quality

bobwhite habitat components. In the southeast and drier western parts of its range,

wooded river valleys, open pine woods with

grass and forb ground cover, brushy canyons

and hillsides, swamps, and dry grasslands with

scattered mesquite and cactus are used by

bobwhites. Lack of diversity of suitable

habitat types may reduce an area’s overall

potential value to northern bobwhites. Likewise, a multitude of differing habitats within one area that are not

connected by a well-defined edge component is of less value to northern bobwhites than an area with a minimum of

necessary habitat requirements growing adjacent to one another and containing many distinct edges between cover

types.

Minimum Habitat Area

Under optimal habitat conditions one covey of northern bobwhites can occupy as little as 4 acres, but typical covey

activities generally occur on 20 to 40 acres of land. Intensively managed areas can average one covey per 15 acres,

whereas less intensively managed lands may require 50 acres or more to support a covey. Optimum carrying capacity— the number of birds an area can support and remain in good condition— is generally one quail per acre in

most regions. However, depending on habitat quality and diversity, more than one individual can inhabit an acre of

land. A covey rarely ranges more than one quarter mile when inhabiting areas containing all habitat components

necessary for survival. A smaller area that contains a mixture of each of the necessary habitat components will

attract and satisfy a covey of quail before a larger area lacking adequate edge components between habitats or

missing one or more needed habitat component. This aspect of bobwhite habitat ecology can potentially make

managing for northern bobwhite on private property easier and more practical than some other wildlife species.

Northern Bobwhite Habitat Management

Northern bobwhites are relatively easy to manage because they thrive in early successional communities which can

be established quickly through various soil disturbance activities. However, the intensity of management to control

succession can be more expensive than other wildlife management actions. The following management practices are

used to disturb soil and vegetation in order to promote early successional growth of plants and attract insects. More

than one practice may be beneficial in an area depending on the primary land use. The area’s size, management

goals, vegetation, and geographic region may dictate which management practices are most appropriate. Consultation with and assistance from federal, state, or local fish and wildlife and land management agencies can be very

helpful in identifying appropriate management actions.

Photo courtesy Tall Timbers Research Station

Field borders and hedgerows provide opportunities to enhance bobwhite quail

habitat on many farms, ranches, and other private properties.
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Management Practices

Disking —Disking strips in dense vegetation removes thick, matted grasses, creates more open travel areas, and promotes

growth of native bobwhite food plants. Adjacent strips 10 to 20 feet wide and no less than 100 feet long should be

disked rotationally along woodlot, grassy field, and fence- and hedgerow edges. Adjacent strips should be disked on a

two to three year rotational basis from January through March. June disking can be done to promote growth of vegetation and attract insects; however, it should be done only in small areas late in the month to minimize impacts on nesting

quail and other ground nesting birds. Disking, plowing or harrowing to a depth of 4 to 6 inches and leaving 30 to 45

percent residue coverage is sufficient to promote vegetation regeneration.

Burning —Prescribed burning is used to maintain grassland communities in various stages of growth and vegetation

diversity. Burning returns valuable nutrients to the soil and maintains grasslands and open woodlands as open habitat

while promoting new growth of grasses, forbs, and shrubs preferred by bobwhites. Although beneficial, prescribed

burning is a highly regulated activity and should only be conducted in cooperation with state fish and wildlife agencies

and with assistance from licensed burners. These agencies and individuals can help in the development of a burn plan;

provide necessary tools, equipment, and supervision; and assist in obtaining all required permits. Prescribed burns

should be conducted on a 4- to 5-year (2- to 3-year in the southeast) rotational basis in late winter or early spring

(February-April) depending on the region. Dividing the burn area into strips or plots can leave undisturbed escape and

nesting cover adjacent to burned plots. Burn planning should include an assessment of plant species response to fire.

For example, sand plum, a valuable quail habitat plant, is intolerant of fire and can be inadvertently eliminated from an

area if burned. Disked firebreaks should be created around burn areas to maintain control of prescribed burns.

Grazing —Managed grazing can be a powerful tool to control succession and maintain productive bobwhite habitat in

native pasture and rangelands and other situations. Quail habitat on grazed areas can best be maintained by avoiding

overgrazing while allowing some disturbance to control succession. Rotationally resting pastures and fencing livestock

from quail nesting, loafing and escape habitat may be necessary. Determine the best grazing rotation to use on property

with regard to livestock herd size, vegetation composition, and topography.

Mowing —Rotational mowing can be used to maintain grassland communities in various stages of growth and vegetation

diversity. However, the need for disturbance of the soil surface to release annual forbs and provide bare soil surfaces

makes disking and burning preferred practices for bobwhite quail.

“Weed sweep” herbicide treatment —A viable alternative to mowing and broadcast application of herbicides for setting

back succession is the use of the emerging “weed sweep” technology. This practice employs a herbicide wiping device

mounted on a tractor that mechanically scratches and applies contact herbicides to shrubs and taller vegetation while

leaving lower growing native forbs and grasses undisturbed. This practice is useful for maintaining quail habitat along

ditch banks, utility rights-of-way, field borders, filter strips, pond margins, pastures, and roadsides.

Plantings —Planting native trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs in odd areas and along woodlots or fencerows can create

both food and cover for northern bobwhite. Blackberry, dogwood, red cedar, Osage orange, sand plum, sumac, and

black locust are a few woody species that can be planted for quail. Cover plantings should occur in strips of two to five

rows with a 15- to 20-foot herbaceous border. Tree and shrub rows are most beneficial when trees are planted six to 10

feet apart in the center rows with surrounding shrubs at 4 to 6 feet apart. Food plots may be beneficial in years of low

food availability. One-acre food plots per 10 to 25 acres is suitable for large areas, but four or five smaller food plots

with irregular edges planted adjacent to fencerows, field borders, and woodlot edges will bring food and cover areas

closer together. Food plants to include in quail food plots are corn, grain sorghum, wheat, rye, oats, millet, soybeans,

cowpeas, clovers, partridge pea, and kobe and Korean lespedezas.

Increasing Edge —When practical, changing the size and shape of quail habitat units can increase the amount of edge

component available. Fields can be reshaped from square edges to irregular edges and broken down into a number of

smaller individual fields from a single large plot. For example, a square field of 100 acres has about 83 feet of usable

edge per acre while a 10-acre field has 264 feet of edge per acre. A 100-acre woodlot that is five times as long as it is

wide has 35 percent more edge than a square woodlot of the same size.
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Northern Bobwhite Habitat Requirements Summary Table

Habitat Component Habitat Requirements

General • Early successional habitats subject to regular distribution including active and fallow crop

fields, pastures, old fields, native grasslands, hedgerows, brushy fencerows, woodlands with grass

and forb ground cover, open meadows with a shrub or brushy component, roadway and

powerline rights-of-way, wooded riparian areas, brushy canyons and hillsides, and rural residential areas.

Food • Plant seeds: legumes such as partridge pea and milk pea, ragweeds, sunflowers, panicgrass,

foxtail, spurges, bull grasses, crotons, beggar’s ticks, chittamwood, smartweeds, dayflowers,

oaks, black locust, pines, sweetgum, ash, and others.

• Cultivated plants: soybeans, grain sorghum, wheat, buckwheat, millet, rye, corn, bi-color, Kobe,

and Korean lespedezas, cowpeas, dropseeds, prairie clovers, tick trefoil, and peanuts.

• Wild fruits: mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, bayberries, huckleberries,

muscadines, wax myrtle, hackberry, grapes, plums, rose hips, pokeberries, persimmons, and the

berries of dogwood, poison ivy, sumac, greenbrier, and others.

• Insects and other arthropods: grasshoppers, leafhoppers, flies, mosquitoes, aphids, potato

beetles, snails, spiders, ants, and others.

Cover—nesting • Grasses and forbs with overhead protection and open travel lanes near the ground. Native

bunch grasses or other vegetation that grows in clumps is preferred.

• Woodlands with herbaceous groundcover, piles of brush, woodland and grassland edges,

thickets, uncut hay and small grain fields, and orchards with overhead cover.

Cover—brood-rearing • Recently burned grasslands, old field communities, weedy field borders, legume plantings, and

small grain fields with a diversity of low-growing green foliage and insects.

• As much as 70 percent open ground to allow movement of chicks, typically within first year

following disturbance action.

Cover—loafing, winter • Shrubby or woody cover, tall grasses, and weed patches.

• Thickets of blackberry, American plum, fragrant sumac, shinnery oak, sand plum, honeysuckle,

wild cherry, and dogwood growing from three to six feet in height.

• Wild grape, greenbrier.

Cover—escape • Tangled thickets, dense grasses and briers, shrubs, and other dense vegetation.

Water • Daily foraging activities, the types of foods eaten, dew, snow, and water produced during

digestion provide an adequate amount of water.

Interspersion • Complex of cover types that provide suitable foraging, nesting, brood-rearing, loafing, escape,

and travel cover each located within close proximity to one another.

Minimum habitat size • Covey activity generally occurs on 20 to 40 acres of land and a covey rarely ranges more than

one quarter mile in good quail habitat.

Timber Management in the Southeast —Much forestland in the southeastern United States is dedicated to

softwood timber production. Bobwhite habitat can be provided simultaneously with management of these timber

stands, although there are some trade-offs. Pine stands that provide productive quail habitat have lower stocking

than stands managed exclusively to maximize timber production. Open, park-like timber stands that allow light

to reach the forest floor and regular ground disturbance through burning and disking provide high quality bobwhite habitat. Depending on site index, mature, even-aged pine stands should be thinned to 30 to 90 square feet

of basal area per acre, with a rule of thumb target basal area equal to the site index for the stand minus 25.

Where landowners are interested in maximizing quail habitat potential, the tree canopy should not cover more

than 50 percent of the ground, and this open understory should be burned every one to two years to maximize

growth of important quail food and cover plants. Disking portions of the understory will also enhance habitat

potential. Younger pine stands should be regularly thinned (every 8 to 12 years) and burned (beginning at 10

years of age) to prevent them from developing closed canopies with little ground cover.
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Limiting Factors

For planning purposes, use the table below to inventory the site to subjectively rate the availability and quality of

quail habitat within a planning area, based on the habitat requirements descriptions. Habitat communities and

components that are absent or rated low are likely limiting northern bobwhite habitat quality.

Availability/quality

Habitat component High Medium Low Absent

Food

Nesting cover

Brood-rearing cover

Loafing/winter cover

Escape cover

Interspersion of habitat components

Minimum habitat size

Management Prescriptions

Management treatments should address the habitat components that are determined to be limiting northern bobwhite habitat potential. For planning purposes, select the possible action items listed to raise the quality or availability of each habitat component determined to be limiting. NRCS Conservation Practices and various programs

that may provide financial or technical assistance to carry out specific management practices are listed where

applicable.

Field Border Management —Vegetation management through planting or disturbance along field

borders can significantly improve northern bobwhite

habitat quality. A vegetative border of 35 feet or

wider along crop field, hayfield, pasture, fallow

field, and woodland edges can provide food, travel

lanes, and nesting, brood-rearing, loafing, and

escape cover. Leaving several rows of standing crop

along field borders near cover or a 30-foot wide

unplanted weedy strip along crop field edges and

unmown strips around pastures, meadows, and

woodlands can benefit bobwhite as well as a multitude of other wildlife. Occasional disturbance (once

or twice annually) in early spring and late fall (so

long as adequate residual cover remains over winter)

via disking may be beneficial to promote germination of annual weed seeds and attract insects along

field borders. Woodlots can be improved for quail

by connecting fragmented woodlots when possible

with travel corridors in the form of grass strips or

tree and shrub plantings. Field borders can play a

vital role in providing quail food and cover and in

connecting various cover types, improving overall

quail habitat quality in agricultural landscapes.
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

NRCS Conservation Practices that may be useful in undertaking the above management actions.

Conservation practices

and assistance programs

338, 528A, 645, 647

WHIP, EQIP, PFW, CRP

386, 390, 391, 612

WHIP, EQIP, PFW, CRP

380, 386, 422, 612, 650

645

WHIP, EQIP, PFW, CRP

380, 612, 650

WHIP, EQIP, PFW, CRP

329

327, 390, 645

WHIP, EQIP, PFW, CRP

338, 528A, 645, 647

WHIP, EQIP, PFW, CRP

595

650

Habitat Management options for increasing

component habitat quality or availability

Food • Preserve and maintain grassland/forb communities and edge habitat by

conducting strip disking, prescribed burning, and rotational or deferred

grazing (especially during drought) when and where appropriate.

• Plant native warm-season grasses such as big bluestem, little bluestem,

switchgrass, sideoats grama, and Indiangrass, as well as legumes, sunflowers, oaks, black locust, pines, and ash.

• Preserve fence-, tree-, and hedgerows growing between fields and along

field edges that provide a diversity of plant and insect life and wild fruits

and seeds.

• Plant soybeans, grain sorghum, wheat, buckwheat, millet, rye, corn, bicolor, Kobe, and Korean lespedezas, cowpeas, dropseeds, prairie clovers,

mesquite, tick trefoil, peanuts, and other small grain crops in food plots.

• Plant or encourage mulberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries,

bayberries, huckleberries, muscadines, wax myrtle, hackberry, grapes,

plums, rose hips, pokeberries, persimmons, dogwood, sumac, and greenbrier when practical along fence, and hedgerows and suitable areas near

quail cover.

• Leave several standing rows of unharvested crops along the edges of

cropfields and use conservation tillage to leave waste grain on the surface

following harvest.

• Avoid or eliminate broadcast herbicide application and maintain forbs,

invertebrates, and seeds consumed as food.

Cover—nesting • Plant native warm-season grasses such as big bluestem, little

and brood- bluestem, switchgrass, sideoats grama, and Indiangrass.

rearing

• Preserve and maintain grassland/forb communities and edge habitat by

strip disking, prescribed burning, weed sweep, or rotational or deferred

grazing (especially during drought) when and where appropriate.

• Minimize broadcast herbicide application during peak nesting and broodrearing months (mid-April-July) or whenever application results in loss of

nesting, loafing, brood-rearing, or winter cover.

Cover—loafing • Preserve shrubby and woody cover, tall grasses, weed patches, and thickets.

and escape

Interspersion and • Combine above prescriptions to increase interspersion of habitat

minimum components and amount of suitable northern bobwhite habitat.

habitat size

Conservation Practice Code Conservation Practice Code

Conservation Cover 327 Hedgerow Planting 422

Residue Management 329A,B,C Prescribed Grazing 528A

Prescribed Burning 338 Pest Management 595

Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment 380 Tree/Shrub Establishment 612

Field Border 386 Upland Wildlife Management 645

Riparian Herbaceous Cover 390 Early Successional Habitat Development 647

Riparian Forest Buffer 391 Windbreak/Shelterbelt Renovation 650
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Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Available assistance

Landowners interested in making their individual efforts more valuable to the community can work with WHC and

NRCS to involve school, scout, and community groups and their families, as well as state and federal fish and

wildlife agency personnel, in habitat projects when possible. On site education programs demonstrating the necessity of northern bobwhite habitat management can greatly increase the value of an individual management project

as well. Corporate landowners should encourage interested employees to become involved.

Programs that provide technical and financial assistance to develop fish and wildlife habitat

on private lands.

Land eligibility

Highly erodible land,

wetland, and certain

other lands with

cropping history.

Streamside areas in

pasture land.

Cropland, range,

grazing land and other

agricultural land in

need of treatment

Most degraded fish

and/or wildlife habitat

Previously degraded

wetland and adjacent

upland buffer, with

limited amount of

natural wetland, and

existing or restorable

riparian areas

Private land

Corporate land

High-priority fish and

wildlife habitats

Type of assistance

50 percent cost-share for establishing permanent cover and conservation practices, and

annual rental payments for land enrolled in 10-

to 15-year contracts. Additional financial

incentives are available for some practices

Up to 75 percent cost-share for conservation

practices in accordance with 5- to 10-year

contracts. Incentive payments for certain

management practices

Up to 100 percent financial and technical

assistance to restore wildlife habitat under

minimum 10-year cooperative agreements

75 percent cost-share for wetland restoration

under 10-year contracts and 30-year easements,

and 100 percent cost share on restoration

under permanent easements. Payments for

purchase of 30-year or permanent conservation

easements.

Technical and program development assistance

to coalesce habitat efforts of corporations and

private landowners to meet common watershed

level goals

Technical assistance on developing habitat

projects into a program that will allow

companies to involve employees and the

community

Up to 75 percent cost-share for conservation

practices under 5- to 10-year contracts

Contact

NRCS or FSA State or local

office

NRCS State or local office

Local office of the U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service

NRCS State or local Office

Wildlife Habitat Council

(301-588-8994)

Wildlife Habitat Council

(301-588-8994)

NRCS State or local office

State or local contacts

Program

Conservation Reserve

Program (CRP)

Environmental Quality

Incentives Program

(EQIP)

Partners for Fish and

Wildlife Program (PFW)

Wetlands Reserve

Program (WRP)

Waterways for Wildlife

Wildlife at Work

Wildlife Habitat

Incentives Program

(WHIP)

State fish and wildlife agencies and private groups such as Quail Unlimited, Inc., may have

assistance programs in your area. Private wildlife and forestry consultants may also be able to

provide planning and other assistance.
 – 11 –

Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

References

Bidwell, T.G., C.B. Green, A.D. Peoples, and R.E. Masters. Habitat appraisal guide for

bobwhite quail. Circular E-905. Third edition. Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service. Stillwater, OK.

Brennan, L.A. 1999. Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), In The birds of North America, No. 397

(A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA. 28pp. (see

www.birdsofna.org for BNA information)

Henry, H. 1997. Vegetation maintenance to restore bobwhite quail habitat. USDA Nat. Resour. Cons. Serv.

Watershed Science Institute Gen. Tech. Note 1. 7 pp.

Guthery, F.S. 1986. Beef, brush and bobwhites. CKWRI Press, Kingsville, TX.

Guthery, F.S. 1997. A philosophy of habitat management for northern bobwhites. J. Wildl. Manage.

61:291-301.

Landers, J.L. and B.S. Mueller. 1997. Bobwhite quail management: A habitat approach. Quail

Unlimited, Inc. Edgefield, SC and Tall Timbers Research Station. Tallahasee, FL.

Mississippi State University Extension Service. 1998, Bobwhite quail management, In

http://www.ext.msstate.edu/pubs/is626.htm.

Moser, W.K., and W.E. Palmer. 1997. Quail habitat and forest management: What are the opportunities? Forest

land owner 56(2) (31st edition of Forest Land Owner’s Manual): 56-63.

Peterson, R.T. 1980. Eastern birds. Fourth ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 384 pp.

Sauer, J.R., J.E. Hines, G. Gough, I. Thomas, and B.G. Peterjohn. 1997. The North American breeding bird

survey results and analysis. Version 96.4. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.

Shalaway, S. and R.W. Altman. Oklahoma State University Extension Service. Bobwhite in Oklahoma: Natural

History and Management. No. 9007.

Terres, J.K. 1991. The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds. Wings Books,

New York. 1110 pp.

Umber, R.W., C. Pregler, and J.H. Eve. 1992, Bobwhite quail in Oklahoma. Oklahoma Department of Wildlife

Conservation. Oklahoma City, OK.

Wells, R. Habitat management for bobwhites: A basic guide for the land manager. Quail Unlimited, Inc.
– 12 –

Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Wildlife Habitat Council

1010 Wayne Avenue, Suite 920

Silver Spring, MD 20910

(301) 588-8994

The Wildlife Habitat Council’s mission is to

increase the amount of quality wildlife habitat

on corporate, private, and public land. WHC

engages corporations, public agencies, and

private, non-profit organizations on a voluntary

basis as one team for the recovery, development,

and preservation of wildlife habitat worldwide.

www.wildlifehc.org

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Wildlife Habitat Management Institute

100 Webster Circle, Suite 3

Madison, MS 39110

(601) 607-3131

In cooperation with partners, the mission of the

Wildlife Habitat Management Institute is to

develop and disseminate scientifically based

technical materials that will assist NRCS field

staffs and others to promote conservation stewardship of fish and wildlife and deliver sound habitat

management principles and practices to America’s

land users.

www.ms.nrcs.usda.gov/whmi

WILDLIFE HABITAT COUNCILSM

© 1988 WHC

Established in 1981 to battle the problem of dwindling quail and

wildlife habitat, Quail Unlimited, Inc. has become the only national,

non-profit conservation organization dedicated to the wise management and conservation of America’s wild quail as a valuable and

renewable resource. This document was peer reviewed by: Daniel

Stillinger, Southeast Regional Director, Quail Unlimited, Inc.

For more information on Quail Unlimited, contact: Quail Unlimited,

Inc., P.O. Box 610, Edgefield SC 29824-0610;

Phone: (803) 637-5731; Fax: (803) 637-0037;

E-mail: national@qu.org; Quail1@jetbn.net

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national

origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all

programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print,

audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and

employer.

www.nrcs.usda.gov