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Northern Bobwhite
Colinus virginianusNorthern Bobwhite
As Bob Dobson awoke one late summer morning in 1989, he thought he heard a Bobwhite calling. Frank and Bob Dobson had seen a great many birds in their back yards, which back up to each other in suburban Greece, and which had been carefully landscaped with flower beds and wild areas of trees and brush to attract as many bird species as possible. But a Northern Bobwhite? Bob “couldn’t believe it and passed it off.” Small wonder. This species had been essentially extirpated from our region for about 80 years. And yet, that same morning his brother Frank watched a bobwhite “casually walking across my back lawn, just before 8 a.m.” Eventually it flew across a busy street and disappeared between a row of houses, but not before Bob had been summoned to witness the bird and realize he had not been imagining things after all. (Birds, 10 September 1989)
Background
This is one of North America’s most important game birds, widely distributed across the eastern U.S. and into Mexico. Captive-reared bobwhites are important for commercial ventures that produce birds for food or release them for hunting. Wild birds have a short life span, but compensate by having two or more broods per year, with more than 25 offspring possible in a single season. Densest populations occur in southern pine forests specifically managed for this species, and on Texas rangelands when above-average rainfall occurs. Elsewhere, populations have been declining during the past 30 years, primarily because of loss of habitat. Recent changes in agriculture, such as “clean farming” that eliminates weeds, and in forestry, such as high density pine plantations, have hurt this species. So has expanding suburbanization. Fire ants may also pose a threat to this ground-nesting species. (BNA 397: 1-2, 15, 16)
Local history
At one time it was not unusual to come upon a covey of these gamebirds, “gathered in a small circle, each one facing outward,” Eaton wrote. When disturbed, “each one springs upward and outward with a startling whirr, all going in different directions” in such a disconcerting fashion “that their escape is assured.” (Eaton: I:363) George Guelf said that Bobwhite was once “very common” near Brockport, and that he had seen several coveys as late as December 1899. (B&M, p. 185) “The small 19th-century farm with its diverse cereal crops, inefficient harvest techniques, weeds, large hedgerows and limited predator populations must have presented perfect quail habitat,” Levine has observed. (Andrle, p. 132)However, though formerly “well established” throughout New York “when our grandfathers were boys,” by 1910 this species was only rarely reported away from downstate, Eaton reported. He listed it as a rare resident in Monroe and Wayne counties and already spoke of it in the past tense for Livingston, listing it as a “formerly” resident species there. (Eaton I: 363-4, county charts)Northern Bobwhite is not even mentioned in R.E. Horsey’s list of species seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936. Indeed, Edson wrote that a few native broods remained in our area only until the early 1900s; Starling claimed that the species had bred “rather commonly in our area” until 1910 or 1915, then gradually disappeared. (WBR, 21 May 1951, 20 August 1962)Many observers date their last sightings from this period: Guelf, for example, didn’t see these gamebirds after 1905; W. A. Smith said the last one he heard was in 1913 near Brockport. (B&M, p. 185)“It is puzzling why, at the turn of the century, this species was able to maintain its numbers in our area but now is unable to do so,” Starling observed.Eaton attributed this to “the severity of our winters, and the depredations of cats and other predacious animals, and the persecution of gunners and pot hunters” all of which thwarted efforts to import southern or western birds. (Eaton I: 362) Smith, for example, stated that about 1901 “he saw about 20 near Morton, but a bunch of ‘sportsmen’ (?) came down from Brockport in winter and cleaned up every last one in the covey.” (B&M, p. 185)Kurt Fox relates interesting speculation that larger Ring-necked Pheasants, introduced as early as 1888 in Livingston County, may have ousted Bobwhites from their habitat and contributed to their demise. (Fox, p. 43)And last, but perhaps not least, “it should be pointed out that New York is the northern limit of its range,” Levine adds.Edson said attempts had been made at Mendon Ponds Park in the 1930s to introduce birds from the south. A 1931 article in the Democrat and Chronicle indicated the Rochester Chapter of the Izaak Walton League “has within the four years since its organization released 125 pairs of quail in the neighborhood of Rochester.” (“Mallard will provide sport and statistics,” D&C, 31 August, 1931) Such efforts were subsequently abandoned. (WBR, 21 May 1951, 20 August 1962)
Status
Monroe County annotated list (1985) considered this a formerly fairly common permanent resident. “A few, however, are now and then raised on local game farms, and the infrequent records reported are undoubtedly of escapes from these farms.” (AL, p. 25)Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this an extirpated (formerly common) permanent resident.
Occurrence
Birds continue to pop up from time to time, no doubt ones that have escaped from game farms or been released by breeders. A Bobwhite that had been calling in Scottsville for a week helped Rochester birders reach an unprecedented 200 species on their May Census Day in 1961. (BA, May 25, 1961)One of the largest tallies came on 16 November 1980 when 12 were observed along West Ridge Road near Route 259 – “most certainly local escapes or their descendants of one year.” (GOS, January 1981)Munro Will reported encountering one in the “hilly country east of Conesus Lake” in August 1981 while walking with a colleague along an abandoned railroad right-of-way. Startled to hear a Bobwhite call, they whistled back and the bird responded.“As we circled closer to the source of the sound, it stopped. Ten feet from the crotch of a small tree, about six feet off the ground, I spotted the unmistakable quail head glancing nervously this way and that. With our approach he took off in a whirr, but not too distantly. As we walked back to the car, we whistled again, and sure enough, he answered as though loathe to have us leave.” (GOS, Vol. 37, No. 9) The following July (1982), at least five “are now turning up at various points along the West Lakeshore from Braddock Bay to Pt. Breeze,” the LG reported. (LG August 1982) “Their origin is unknown. Two likely sources in this region are: a game farm at Pt. Breeze, and farmers, who locally are known to have ‘barnyard’ quail and chukar.”One of the more recent reports was on 12 June 2004 in Mendon Ponds Park. (GNR) Even the evidence of breeding that occurred in our region during the BBA projects was “probably traceable to the releases of quail raised in captivity for hunting or dog training,” Levine noted. At that point the New York wild breeding population was confined almost entirely to Long Island.
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