The Fate of the Bobwhite Quail

Like Masked Bobwhites Before Them, Northern Bobwhites are Decreasing

May 15, 2007

In the 1950s Masked Bobwhite Quail were feared extinct due to habitat loss. Now Northern Bobwhites, once very common, dwindle for the same reason.

Northern Bobwhite Quail

Northern Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virginianus) are small quail familiar to residents of the eastern United States and southern Ontario in Canada. Traveling in coveys of several families, they were once common in areas of brushy vegetation, open woodland, and mixed tall grasses, and might be seen cautiously crossing exposed areas between one grassy or brushy area to another, one by one. Grasses, used for cover, nesting sites, and food, are important to the survival of the species.

The loss of grassland in the birds’ habitat has caused a significant decline in Northern Bobwhite Quail—land has been cleared and used for growing agricultural crops and grazing livestock, and for building. In Ontario, the Northern Bobwhite is now listed as “at risk,” while the species is designated “near threatened” on the IUCN Red List.

Though we’re starting to wake up to the plight of the Northern Bobwhite, little is being done to preserve its habitat. It’s an eerie replay of the decline of the Masked Bobwhite, or Sonoran Bobwhite, a subspecies that declined so precipitously that it was feared extinct.

Masked Bobwhite Quail

The Masked Bobwhite Quail, often called the Sonoran Bobwhite because of its habitat in the Sonoran Desert and in the State of Sonora, Mexico, is a subspecies of Colinus virginianus. Until the nineteenth century, the bird was common in parts of southern Arizona; Sonora, Mexico, and possibly even further south. The advent of cattle ranching in Arizona and Mexico, however, meant trouble for the Masked Bobwhite.

Cattle grazing in bobwhite habitat consumed the grasses that quail depended on so heavily for food, shelter, and nesting. Cattle trampling the ground also compacted the soil preventing seeds of native grasses from germinating. Drought conditions in the 1890s killed even more native grasses. After 1900, the Masked Bobwhite Quail was extinct or very rare in Arizona.

Cattle ranching spread south to Sonora, Mexico with the same devastating results. By the 1950s, the Masked Bobwhite Quail was feared extinct, the victim of drought and habitat loss. In 1964, however, the Masked Bobwhite turned up in Benjamin Hill, Sonora, whereupon some of the birds were captured and relocated or bred in captivity. The captive birds were placed in the hands of the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1966. It was the beginning of a turnaround for the bird that is still in progress.

Masked Bobwhite Quail now have a place of their own—the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona, where livestock grazing and hunting are prohibited. Native grasses are becoming reestablished, and quail descended from the individuals caught in 1964, and others trapped in 1968, and 1970, have been released. Though they are not yet self-sustaining and repeated releases are required, there is evidence that the birds are breeding successfully. These birds, as well as the few remaining coveys living in the wild in Mexico are the future of the subspecies.

Hopefully, the lessons learned with the Masked Bobwhite Quail will inspire us to address the problems of the Northern Bobwhite Quail before such drastic measures are required.

Read about other birds in peril:

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