At night, coveys usually roost on the ground (or occasionally in vegetation) in a close-packed, outward-facing circle with their tails pointing toward the center, probably to conserve heat and stay on the alert. They feed in early morning and late afternoon. Northern Bobwhites are highly social, usually found in groups, or coveys, of 3–20 individuals. Nesting FactsĪctive and covered with down, but dependent on parents to stay warm and find food. They often weave weeds and grasses into an arch to completely hide the nest from view. Nest Descriptionīoth sexes work together to dig a scrape in the ground, about 6 inches across and 2 inches deep, and line it with grass and other dead vegetation. The male and the female jointly choose a nest site on the ground or in low vegetation, usually within 65 feet of an opening such as a field or road. In the spring they eat more leafy green parts of plants, and in the summer their diet includes grass seeds, some fruits, and arthropods-such as bugs, flies, bees, wasps, beetles, and spiders. During fall and winter they eat many legume seeds, ragweed seeds, pine seeds, and acorns. Their staple food of seeds comes from agricultural crops, weeds, forest plants, and rangeland vegetation. When snow falls they seek out patches of bare ground under brushy areas. Bobwhites forage as a group, scratching and pecking through leaf litter or foraging on low plants. Arthropods can make up 5 percent of the male’s diet and 20 percent of the female’s diet during the breeding season. Chicks are fed mostly insects until they are 6–8 weeks old. Back to top Foodīobwhites eat mostly seeds and leaves, supplemented with varying amounts of insects during the breeding season. During snowfalls in the northern part of their range, bobwhites depend on woody cover to prevent snow from reaching the ground and blocking their foraging habitat. They are most numerous in patchwork areas of fields, forests, and croplands in coastal Texas rangelands and in southern pine forests that are intensively managed for bobwhite hunting. They seem to avoid mature woodlands, inhabiting instead the early stages of regrowth after a fire, farming, logging, or other disturbance. They live in agricultural fields, grasslands, open pine or pine-hardwood forests, and grass-brush rangelands as far north as Massachusetts and southern Ontario, and as far west as southeastern Wyoming and eastern New Mexico. Northern Bobwhites are year-round residents in open habitats of southeastern North America.
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