(- Trans Pecos
- High Plains/Panhandle
- Cross Timbers
- Hill Country
- Post Oak Savannah
- Pineywoods
- Oak Prairie
- South Texas Plains
Wildlife Division District Map
Pineywoods Wildlife Management
Bobwhite Management
Food
Food
supplies are usually most abundant during the spring and summer; seeds are
ripening and insects and green plant material are available. The food supply
begins to diminish at the time of the first killing frost in the fall, and
continues to decline throughout the winter due to competition from other animals
and from
weathering. Seeds from forbs such as croton (doveweed), ragweed, sunflower,
partridge pea, tick clover, and many others are staple winter foods. A number
of woody plants provide winter quail food. Fruits and mast such as small acorns,
sumac berries, hackberries, and gum elastic berries supplement quail diets.
Most grasses, except for paspalums and panic grasses, do not produce seeds
large enough to be worthwhile quail food. In general, forbs are the most important
and most widely distributed sources of winter quail food. Green material from
cool season forbs and grasses that germinate in the late winter if rainfall
is adequate are essential to get quail in good body condition for the upcoming
breeding season.
Cover
Bobwhite quail need several types of cover: screening overhead cover for security while feeding and traveling, "tangled" woody cover to retreat into to escape enemies, a "living room" type of cover for dusting or resting, and nesting cover. Roosting cover is also needed, but if other types of cover are present, the roosting cover requirement is usually adequately met.
Cover can take many forms and a patch of cover can meet several of the cover requirements.
A stand of broomweed, or similar tall plants with bushy canopies and an open understory at ground level, can provide screening overhead cover.
Thickets of low brush, trees, and vines can provide escape and loafing cover. In general, a habitat with between 5% and 15% canopy coverage of good woody cover is adequate, if it occurs in small, well distributed patches (no more than 200 yards between patches as discussed above).
Patches of residual grasses left over from the previous growing season can provide nesting cover. Individual patches should be at least 8 inches tall and 12 inches in diameter (the size of a cake pan). Ideally, there should be more than 250 well distributed clumps of suitable nesting cover per acre, or 1 clump every 15 to 20 steps. Too little nesting cover makes it easier for predators to find and destroy nests.