Cool season grasses such as tall fescue, smooth brome, tall wheatgrass, annual bromes, and wild ryes are seldom used for nesting. Bobwhites begin nesting in Oklahoma after covey break-up in April. Open areas of herbaceous plants or grain and seed crops are used for feeding. Areas that have been burned produce green forage early and will attract high concentrations of insects and are often called bugging grounds . Quail chicks require herbaceous plants spaced far enough apart to provide travel corridors.
Protective cover is used for loafing and is necessary for escaping from predators.
Low-growing woody plants and upright growing forbs are used for this type of cover because they provide a visual screen from aerial and ground predators. Protective cover must also persist during cold weather when thermal protection is needed. Living, low-growing woody plants such as plums, blackberries, sumacs, and buckbrush provide the best protection because they are persistent over a number of years. Brush piles are more temporary protection, although they last longer than dense herbaceous plants such as cudweed or sunflowers. The diet of adult bobwhite quail consists of insects and seeds and fruits of native forbs, grasses, shrubs, trees, and cultivated crops.