Find out what a male, female and juvenile northern bobwhite looks like, what they sound like, and where you may find these birds in the U.S.
Stroll through a peaceful prairie and, in the span of a step, you might set off a burst of beating wings as a covey of northern bobwhites take to the air. A covey is a small group of birds, usually quail. Northern bobwhites, a ground-foraging species, find strength in numbers (with as many as 20 birds in one covey) to contend with natural predators, such as birds of prey.
What Does a Northern Bobwhite Look Like?
Their round bodies and small heads give them a distinctive shape, but their coloring is perfect camouflage. Females and males share intricate brown and rufous patterns, but male heads are black and white.
“They’re adorable birds,” says Sarah Jacobson, a PhD student studying northern bobwhite ecology at the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
Northern Bobwhite Call and Sounds
Bobwhites are beautiful birds with a loud bob-bob-white whistle, sung by the males from fence posts during the breeding season.
“If you miss their summertime bob-white call, during the fall and early winter, bobwhite coveys whistle their koi-lee call about 30 minutes before dawn. This call lets coveys communicate their presence to each other,” Sarah says.
How to Attract Bobwhites
Northern bobwhites add protein, such as spiders and crickets, to their diets when it’s available. But otherwise, the bulk of what they eat is plant-based—think legume seeds and acorns in winter and leafy plants and grass seeds in summer.
Sarah notes that northern bobwhites live in grasslands, shrubby pastures and along agricultural fields, making them an atypical backyard bird. However, if you have an open landscape with dense shrubs for coverage, they may visit a ground feeder or stop by a water source.
Nesting Habits
Northern bobwhites build their nests on the ground too. Together, the male and the female scrape out a nest and cushion it with vegetation. Females lay up to two dozen eggs in a single clutch.
Scientists once thought northern bobwhites formed monogamous pairs, but after tracking individual birds, they discovered males and females can have multiple mates per season. A female bobwhite will even sometimes leave the male to raise their young while she finds a new partner.
If a brooding northern bobwhite senses a predator is nearby, she may flutter a short distance away and pretend to have a broken wing, dragging herself on the ground, to draw the predator away from the nest or fledglings.
Northern Bobwhite Habitat
Although northern bobwhites are a common species across the Midwest and the eastern United States, their numbers have been decreasing greatly.
“Habitat loss, mechanized farming, fire suppression and urban sprawl have led to the decline,” Sarah says.
Jared A. Elmore, research assistant professor at Clemson University and science coordinator with the National Bobwhite and Grassland Initiative, elaborates. “Northern bobwhites are shrubland birds that need early successional habitat that is frequently disturbed (e.g., prescribed fire). The main driver of bobwhite declines is habitat loss; much of this is due to conversion of native vegetation to nonnative,” he says. “For example, in the southeast conversion from native savannas to traditional forestry with densely packed trees and little to no understory, or in the midwest conversion from native grassland to cropland.”
Conservation Efforts: How to Help Bobwhites
Northern bobwhites help control insect populations and spread seeds more widely. “If you or someone you know is a landowner, you can contact your local state wildlife agency office, who will have resources for ways to restore quail habitat on your land,” Sarah says. Quail Forever (quailforever.org) is another great resource. “It’s a magical feeling when you stand in the field before dawn, listening to their whistles and watching the sun rise,” Sarah says.
How can the average backyard birder help the bobwhite population? “I think the active birder can be supporters of better and more frequent management on public and private lands. They can also support native plants by planting or converting to natives on their own property and leaving grassy areas longer (i.e., less frequent mowing),” Jared says. “This can help northern bobwhite, pollinators, and other grassland songbirds.”
Though the bobwhite population has declined across their range, there is still hope for recovery.
These are charismatic birds that everyone loves to see and hear,” Jared adds. “They have significantly declined and we are coming dangerously close to future generations not encountering these birds. They respond well and quickly to management, so we should still hang on to hope for recovery efforts.”
Northern Bobwhite Range
Bobwhites are widespread native birds in the eastern U.S. Despite the name “northern,” these birds don’t naturally occur in the far north. One reader wrote in to report an unusual backyard sighting.
“Last winter a northern bobwhite sat on our back fence for over an hour and allowed my wife to get close enough to take photos. Bobwhites are not supposed to be in southern Idaho, so what was it doing in our yard?” asks Eric Adams of Meridian, Idaho.
Kenn and Kimberly say, “You’re right, northern bobwhites aren’t native to anyplace near Idaho, although there are a few small introduced populations in the Pacific Northwest. Bobwhites are often raised in captivity; sportsmen’s groups sometimes release them into the wild, or use them to train hunting dogs how to “point” at game. Because the one in your yard acted so tame, it was probably one of these pen-raised and released birds.”
Additionally, many people keep small captive flocks in farm country. If you see an individual bird, it may have wandered away from such a flock.
