Northern bobwhite


The northern bobwhite, also known as the Virginia quail or bobwhite quail, is a ground-dwelling bird native to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba, with introduced populations elsewhere in the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. It is a member of the group of species known as New World quail. They were initially placed with the Old World quail in the pheasant family, but are not particularly closely related. The name "bobwhite" is an onomatopoeic derivation from its characteristic whistling call. Despite its secretive nature, the northern bobwhite is one of the most familiar quails in eastern North America, because it is frequently the only quail in its range. Habitat degradation has contributed to the northern bobwhite population in eastern North America declining by roughly 85% from 1966 to 2014. This population decline is apparently range-wide and continuing.
There are 20 subspecies of northern bobwhite, many of which are hunted extensively as game birds. One subspecies, the masked bobwhite, is listed as endangered with wild populations located in the northern Mexican state of Sonora and a reintroduced population in Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona.

Taxonomy

The northern bobwhite was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Tetrao virginianus. Linnaeus specified the type location as "America" but this has been restricted to the state of Virginia. Linnaeus based his account on the "American partridge" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist Mark Catesby in his book The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. The northern bobwhite is now one of four species placed in the genus Colinus that was introduced in 1820 by the German naturalist Georg August Goldfuss.

Subspecies

There are 20 recognized subspecies in four groups. One subspecies, the Key West bobwhite, is extinct. The subspecies are listed in taxonomic order:
  • Eastern group
  • *C. v. virginianus - Virginia bobwhite - eastern North America from Ontario south to northern Florida
  • *C. v. floridanus – Florida bobwhite – peninsular Florida
  • *†C. v. insulanus – Key West bobwhite – the Florida Keys
  • *C. v. cubanensis – Cuban bobwhite – Cuba and Isla de la Juventud; introduced to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos islands
  • *C. v. taylori – plains bobwhite – South Dakota to northern Texas, western Missouri and northwestern Arkansas
  • *C. v. texanus – Texas bobwhite – southwestern Texas to northern Mexico
  • *C. v. aridus – Jaumave bobwhite – west-central Tamaulipas to southeastern San Luis Potosí
  • *C. v. maculatus – spot-bellied bobwhite – central Tamaulipas to northern Veracruz and southeastern San Luis Potosí
  • Grayson's group
  • *C. v. graysoni – Grayson's bobwhite – west-central Mexico
  • *C. v. nigripectus – Puebla bobwhite – eastern Mexico
  • Black-breasted group
  • *C. v. pectoralis – black-breasted bobwhite – eastern slopes and mountains of central Veracruz
  • *C. v. godmani – Godman's bobwhite – eastern slopes and mountains of central Veracruz
  • *C. v. minor – least bobwhite – northeastern Chiapas and Tabasco
  • *C. v. thayeri – Thayer's bobwhite – northeastern Oaxaca
  • Masked group
  • *C. v. ridgwayi – masked bobwhite – north-central Sonora; reintroduced to Arizona
  • *C. v. atriceps – black-headed bobwhite – interior of western Oaxaca
  • *C. v. harrisoni – Harrison's bobwhite – southwestern Oaxaca
  • *C. v. coyoleos – Coyoleos bobwhite – Pacific Coast of Oaxaca and Chiapas
  • *C. v. salvini – Salvin's bobwhite – coastal and southern Chiapas
  • *C. v. insignis – Guatemalan bobwhite – Guatemala and southeastern Chiapas
The holotype specimen of Ortyx pectoralis Gould is held in the collections of the National Museums Liverpool at the World Museum, with accession number D3713. The specimen died in the aviary at Knowsley Hall, Lancashire and came to the Liverpool national collection via the 13th Earl of Derby's collection, which was bequeathed to the people of Liverpool in 1851.

Description

The northern bobwhite is a moderately-sized quail, and is the only small galliform native to eastern North America. The bobwhite can range from in length with a wingspan. As indicated by body mass, weights increase in birds found further north, as corresponds to Bergmann's rule. In Mexico, northern bobwhites weigh from whereas in the north they average and large males can attain as much as. Among standard measurements, the wing chord is, the tail is the culmen is and the tarsus is. It has the typical chunky, rounded shape of a quail. The bill is short, curved and brown-black in color. This species is sexually dimorphic. Males have a white throat and brow stripe bordered by black. The overall rufous plumage has gray mottling on the wings, white scalloped stripes on the flanks, and black scallops on the whitish underparts. The tail is gray.
The clear whistle "bob-WHITE" or "bob-bob-WHITE" call is very recognizable. The syllables are slow and widely spaced, rising in pitch a full octave from beginning to end. Other calls include lisps, peeps, and more rapidly whistled warning calls.

Distribution and habitat

The northern bobwhite can be found year-round in agricultural fields, grassland, open woodland areas, roadsides and wood edges. Its range covers the southeastern quadrant of the United States from the Great Lakes and southern Minnesota east to New York State and southern Massachusetts, and extending west to southern Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado front-range foothills to 7,000 feet, and all but westernmost Texas.
It is absent from the southern tip of Florida and the highest elevations of the Appalachian Mountains, but occurs in eastern Mexico and in Cuba, and has been introduced to Hispaniola, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, France, China, Portugal, and Italy. Isolated populations also have been introduced in the US states of Oregon and Washington. The northern bobwhite has also been introduced to New Zealand.
There is no self-sustaining population in Pennsylvania, where the bird is considered extirpated; it is also considered extirpated in the states of New Hampshire and Connecticut. Its distribution in New York has been limited to Suffolk and Nassau Counties on Long Island, as well as potential population pockets in Upstate New York. The bird is considered declining or extirpated throughout much of the Northeastern United States. Similarly, the bird is almost extirpated from Ontario, with the only self-sustaining population confirmed to exist recorded on Walpole Island.

Behavior and ecology

Like most game birds, the northern bobwhite is shy and elusive. When threatened, it will crouch and freeze, relying on camouflage to stay undetected, but will flush into low flight if closely disturbed. It is generally solitary or paired early in the year, but family groups are common in the late summer and winter roosts may have two dozen or more birds in a single covey.

Breeding

The species was once considered monogamous, but with the advent of radio telemetry, the sexual behavior of bobwhites has better been described as ambisexual polygamy. Either parent may incubate a clutch for 23 days, and the precocial young leave the nest shortly after hatching. The main source of nest failure is predation, with nest success averaging 28% across their range. However, the nest success of stable populations is typically much higher than this average, and the aforementioned estimate includes values for declining populations.
Brooding behavior varies in that amalgamation may occur. An incubating parent may alternatively stay with its young. A hen may re-nest up to four times until she has a successful nest. However, it is extremely rare for bobwhites to hatch more than two successful nests within one nesting season.

Food and feeding

The northern bobwhite's diet consists of plant material and small invertebrates, such as snails, ticks, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, crickets, and leafhoppers. Plant sources include seeds, wild berries, partridge peas, and cultivated grains. It forages on the ground in open areas with some spots of taller vegetation.
Optimal nutrient requirements for bobwhite vary depending on the age of bird and the time of the year. For example, the optimal protein requirement for egg laying hens is much higher than for males.

Relationship to humans

Introduced populations

European Union

Northern bobwhite were introduced into Italy in 1927, and are reported in the plains and hills in the northwest of the country. Other reports from the EU are in France, Spain, and the Balkans. As bobwhites are highly productive and popular aviary subjects, it is reasonable to expect other introductions have been made in other parts of the EU, especially in the U.K. and Ireland, where game-bird breeding, liberation, and naturalization are relatively common practices.

New Zealand

From 1898 to 1902, some 1,300 birds were imported from America and released in many parts of the North and South Islands, from Northland to Southland. The bird was briefly on the Nelson game shooting licence, but: "It would seem that the committee was a little too eager in placing these Quail on the licence, or the shooters of the day were over-zealous and greedy in their bag limits, for the Virginian Quail, like the Mountain Quail were soon a thing of the past." The Taranaki Society released a few in 1900 and was confidant that in a year or two they might offer good sport; two years later, broods were reported and the species was said to be steadily increasing; but after another two years they seemed to have disappeared and that was the end of them. The Otago Society imported more in 1948, but these releases did no good. After 1923, no more genuinely wild birds were sighted until 1952, when a small population was found northwest of Wairoa in the Ruapapa Road area. Since then, bobwhite have been found at several localities around Waikaremoana, in farmland, open bush and along roadsides.
More birds have been imported into New Zealand by private individuals since the 1990s and a healthy captive population is now held by backyard aviculturists and have been found to be easily cared for and bred and are popular for their song and good looks. A larger proportion of the national captive population belong to a few game preserves and game bird breeders. Though the birds would be self-sustaining in the wild if they were protected; it is tricky to guess what the effect of an annual population subsidy and hunting has on any of the original populations from the Acclimatisation Society releases.
An albino hen was present in a covey in Bayview, Hawkes Bay for a couple of seasons sometime around 2000.