The bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) is a popular gamebird found throughout the eastern and central United States. They thrive in a variety of habitats, but prefer early successional habitats that provide an abundance of native grasses, forbs, and brushy cover. Understanding the ideal habitat requirements for bobwhites can help land managers create and maintain productive quail lands.
Grasslands
Bobwhites evolved in the expansive grassland and prairie ecosystems of North America. They flourish in habitats dominated by bunchgrasses, such as broomsedge and little bluestem. A diversity of grasses provides overhead protection from predators, supports an abundant insect population, and produces seeds consumed by bobwhites. Native warm-season grasses tend to provide better habitat than cool-season grasses. Ideal vegetation height ranges from 6-24 inches tall.
Prescribed Fire
Fire helps maintain open grasslands and prevents woody encroachment. Frequent prescribed burns every 2-3 years are recommended in pine savannas and grassland ecosystems. Burning removes accumulated leaf litter and stimulates the growth of nutritious young grasses and forbs that bobwhites rely on.
Discing and Mowing
On sites where prescribed fire cannot be used safely, discing and strip mowing can set back plant succession. Discing breaks up sod-bound grasses and exposes the soil to stimulate new growth. Mowing or chopping brush generates open patches in overgrown areas. Both techniques encourage plant diversity when applied on a 3-4 year rotation.
Early Successional Habitat
As grasslands mature into shrublands and woodlands, they become less suitable for bobwhites. However, disturbance generates ideal early successional habitat. The diverse mix of grasses, forbs, and low brush provides overhead protection, bare ground areas for dusting, and abundant seed and insect sources. Early successional habitat with a patchy distribution of shrubs, grasses and forbs provides optimal quail habitat.
Agricultural Practices
Certain agricultural practices can create productive quail lands. Light grazing by cattle or goats stimulates new plant growth. Rotational grazing that allows for rest periods is ideal. Strip disking on a 3-year rotation creates disked strips about 30-60 feet wide. Plantings along field edges or contour farming increase usable space. Leaving unharvested crop rows provides food and cover.
Clearcuts and Thinnings
In pine plantations and hardwood forests, timber harvest via clearcutting or thinning opens the canopy and allows early successional vegetation to establish. Clearcuts 4-30 acres in size create ideal quail habitat that persists for 5-15 years before canopy closure. Thinnings are used to restore open understories that typically exist under mature pine stands. Both harvest methods should focus on promoting diverse groundcover.
Brushy, Shrubby Cover
Bobwhites need escape and thermal cover provided by shrubs and brushy thickets. Native shrubs that produce soft mast (berries), such as blackberry and hawthorn, are ideal. Clumps of plum, elderberry, sumac, wild rose and similar shrubs distributed across the landscape furnish bobwhites with protective cover. In pine forests, retaining scrub oaks, sweetgum and other shrubs within forested areas and maintaining shrubby field borders bolsters habitat quality.
Retaining Hedges and Fencerows
Bobwhites flourish where hedges, shrub borders and fencerows break up fields and pastures. These linear stretches of shrubs provide critical all-season shelter and allow bobwhites to safely disperse across the landscape. Retaining old fencerows and allowing hedges to grow tall and wide improves connectivity between other habitats. Plantings of native shrubs can establish new hedges and augment existing borders.
Wetland Buffers
Encouraging the growth of shrubs around wetlands creates valuable brooding habitat for quail with vulnerable chicks. Buffering wetlands with native shrubs like buttonbush, alder and elderberry provides cover and food for bobwhite chicks near critical water sources. Werland buffers should extend at least 30-60 feet outward from the wetland boundary.
Supplemental Feed
In poor habitat or during periods of extreme weather, supplemental feed in the form of grain sorghum or millet can help bobwhites survive bottlenecks. Scattering feed intermittently in known quail areas ensures it benefits the target species. Focus supplemental feeding efforts during late winter and early spring when wild foods are limited. Feeding too early risks concentrating quail and increasing predation. Supplemental feed should enhance habitat, not replace it.
Feed Type | Benefits |
---|---|
Grain sorghum | High in protein, affordable, withstands weathering |
Millet | Small seeds accessible to young quail |
Wheat | Readily available in most regions |
Corn | High energy, often available on farms |
Feeder Design
Spinning cylindrical feeders protect seed from moisture while making it easily accessible to bobwhites. Tube or barrel feeders with holes drilled in the sides also work well. Distribute feeders in cover so birds feel secure while feeding. Use multiple feeders to disperse birds and reduce disease transmission risk.
Habitat First
Supplemental feeding is not a substitute for quality habitat management. Only provide supplemental feed in marginal or emergency situations. The ultimate keys to increasing quail numbers are restoring native groundcover and creating a mosaic of habitat components across the landscape.
Landscape Factors
Bobwhites thrive where multiple habitat components—grasslands, croplands, brushy areas, and open woodlands—exist in a well-connected, well-interspersed mosaic. The right balance and arrangement of these habitat types allows bobwhites to flourish.
Diversity
A diverse mix of native grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees provides bobwhites with varied food and cover resources. No single plant species is essential, but plant diversity is extremely important. Landscapes with 20+ diverse plant species tend to support more quail.
Edge Feathering
Soft edges between habitat types provide prime quail habitat. Transition zones with irregular borders, such as where a brushy field edges a pine plantation, allow brushy cover to feather into adjacent habitats. These feathered edges create usable space and allow bobwhites to safely access multiple habitats.
Interdispersion
The interspersion and close proximity of multiple habitat components increases usability. Grasslands and crop fields ideally should be within 100-200 yards of shrubby, brushy escape cover. A heterogeneous habitat mosaic with small habitat patches close together facilitates bobwhite movements and daily activities.
Connectivity
Connectivity between habitats allows bobwhites to nest, feed, loaf, and find cover. Hedges, brushy fencerows, wooded riparian areas, and other habitat corridors provide connectivity on the landscape. Bobwhites in highly connected habitat have better survival and reproduction. Fragmentation created by roads, development, and agriculture reduces landscape connectivity.
Putting it All Together
Quality early successional habitat is the unifying element for bobwhite management. Native grasses with scattered shrubs, interspersed with patches of bare ground, cropped areas, and open woodland best provides the food, cover, nesting habitat and space needed to sustain bobwhite populations. Conducting disturbance through fire, timber harvests, disking, grazing or other methods generates these critical early successional conditions.
Management Regimes
Habitat management should aim to maintain early successional habitat across approximately 30-60% of a property. The remainder can include woods and regenerating areas to allow succession to continue. Dividing land into 3-5 acre management units and implementing disturbance on a 3-4 year rotation in each unit creates a shifting mosaic of seral stages.
Monitoring
Conducting annual quail surveys allows managers to monitor population responses to habitat work. Recording the number of calling males heard along standardized routes provides an index to track relative abundance. Trail cameras, nest searches, and quail covey counts also help monitor populations. Adaptive habitat management based on monitoring data can optimize management.
Conclusion
Bobwhite quail thrive in early successional habitat mosaics containing a diversity of grasses, forbs, shrubs, and open woods. Conducting periodic disturbance through fire, disking, grazing, or other methods maintains this habitat. Focusing on interspersion, connectivity, diversity, and habitat arrangement creates bobwhite havens. Supplemental feeding and establishing food plots can provide seasonal resources but do not replace habitat management. By managing habitats for early successional species, land managers can sustain vibrant bobwhite populations.