Northern Bobwhite Habitat

by Kenneth A. Kuiper, Biologist
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Salina, Kansas

In 2004, the new Conservation Security Program (CSP) in the Little Blue and Salt Fork of the Arkansas watersheds included a wildlife component which can reward landowners who maintain the best bobwhite habitat. CSP is a program administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.

What is bobwhite habitat? The Bobwhite Quail Home Range Habitat Evaluation Tool was developed to address this question. Here is an overview of key points identified in this assessment.

Bobwhite habitat is described in the assessment as nesting cover, brood habitat, covey headquarters, food, and interspersion. All of these habitat components are essential for the bobwhite’s survival, and they must be available within each 40-acre home range.

Nesting Cover

The best nesting cover is described as native warm season grasses or wildlife friendly cool season bunch grasses with last year’s growth available before and during the nesting season which is May 1 to September 15. The best home range for bobwhite will contain at least 30 percent of this habitat condition. The best nesting cover height is 8 inches or greater with 10 to 20 percent legumes.

Brood Habitat

Brood habitat is described as herbaceous plants with bare ground and new growth forbs, weeds, annual plants, or no-till crops. The best habitat home range will 40 percent or more of this type of brood cover. Bobwhite chicks also need 25 to 50 percent bare ground around screening cover which is a canopy cover at least 6 inches high. As described, no-till milo fields are an example of a field with bare ground and screening cover.

Covey Headquarters

Covey headquarters is essential for escape, protection from predators, food, and water. The best covey headquarters are woody shrubs, low growing stemmy trees, and down tree structures. Research shows the best bobwhite home range habitat contains 10 to 20 percent of this kind of woody habitat. The best woody species are low growing woody plants like currants, plums, buckbrush, and blackberry.

Food

Bobwhite chicks utilize mostly insects and tender, newly emerged vegetation for food. Adult bobwhite food includes insects, native plants, grain crop seeds, forbs, woody plants, and grasses. Creating open bare ground to allow access to preferred food sources should be considered in planning and implementing this practice.

Interspersion

Interspersion is described as locating nesting cover, brood habitat, covey headquarters, and food within a bobwhite home range. The best habitat will have all components in each home range. Interspersion value is determined by transecting the home range and by counting the times the habitat components change.

Fossil records show bobwhites were in Kansas during the late Pliocene, over a million years ago. Today, bobwhite quail are adapted to suitable habitat from Clovis, New Mexico, to the east coast and from Michigan and New Hampshire to southern Florida. The bobwhite is universally loved by rural Kansans, but in some home range areas the call “bobwhite” is now absent because of habitat change. With the exception of negative impacts from drought and hail, providing quality habitat will certainly bring back the bobwhite quail and the aesthetic benefit it brings to our rural life style.

For more information about wildlife habitat, please contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service office or conservation district office located at your local county USDA Service Center.

For more information about NRCS programs, visit the Kansas NRCS Web site at www.ks.nrcs.usda.gov.

This article is also available in Microsoft Word format.

Northern Bobwhite Habitat (DOC; 41 KB)

< Back to Conservation Editions - Fiscal Year 2005 Index

Last Modified: 09/04/2008