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Bird name:

Northern Bobwhite

Colinus virginianus

Order

GALLIFORMES

Family

Quails (Odontophoridae)

Code 4

NOBO

Code 6

COLVIR

ITIS

175863

Breeding Location:

Scrub vegetation areas

Breeding Type:

Monogamous

Breeding Population:

Declining, Common locally

Egg Color:

Cream

Number of Eggs:

14 - 16

Incubation Days:

Egg Incubator:

Female

Nest Material:

Weeds, grasses, dead vegetation

Migration:

Nonmigratory

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General

Northern Bobwhite: Medium-sized, morphologically variable quail, most with unique head pattern of white face and throat with wide, dark eyestripe and rufous-brown (eastern and Great Plains) or black (Florida) center stripe on top of head. Body shows a mottled combination of black, brown, rufous-brown, and gray; eastern form has plain rufous-brown breast band, Great Plains form has gray and rufous-brown mottled breast band, and Florida form has nearly black breast band. Southwestern form has black head, face, and throat, a faint white eyebrow extending down neck, and rufous-brown body. Female of all forms has buff face and throat with brown eyestripe and cap; body is mottled rufous-brown, black, and white overall. Juvenile is smaller and duller.

Range and Habitat

Northern Bobwhite: Found in a variety of early successional brushy, forested, and agricultural habitats throughout much of the eastern U.S.

Breeding and Nesting

Northern Bobwhite: Monogamous and solitary. Both sexes build scape nest of grasses, weeds, dead vegetation. Female usually incubates fourteen to sixteen cream eggs alone for 23 days, males have been documented incubating occasionally. Precocial, downy young are able to walk and find insect food almost immediately upon hatching. Family groups may stay together through late winter.

Foraging and Feeding

Northern Bobwhite: Feeds on a variety of seeds, by ground foraging, occasionally consumes green vegetation and insects. Seed diet extremely diverse, includes wheat, corn, soybeans, legumes, pine and oak mast, and grasses.

Readily Eats

Cracked Corn

Vocalization

Northern Bobwhite: Song a clear, whistled "bob WHITE" or "pup WAAAYK." Several different call notes include soft "hoy", moderate "hoy-poo", and loud "koi-lee." Alarm call a harsh "quaee." Some geographic variation in vocalizations.

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Breast

The upper front part of a bird.

Eyebrow

Also called the supercilicum or superciliary it is the arch of feathers over each eye.

Face

The front part of the head consisting of the bill, eyes, cheeks and chin.

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America