STEVE MASLOWSKI/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
According to the North American Breeding Bird Survey, between 1966 and 2014 numbers of bobwhite quail declined by 85 percent in the northeastern United States. Unlike several other southern species, it is falling back from the northern edges of its range in this part of the country. The New Hampshire Rare Birds Committee keeps a list of “Review Species,” which are those that are declining or extinct in the state. The bobwhite comes under the latter category in New Hampshire.
Here is their entry on the species:
Extirpated. The Northern Bobwhite is a southern species whose range does not currently reach New Hampshire. It is also a relatively common game bird with hunting clubs and escaped birds are sometimes seen in the state. There are historic references from the 1700’s in Belknap [County}] at a time when the Bobwhite were more common in northern New England. Forbush (1912) states “the Bobwhite became common, if not abundant, over most of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, much of New York, southern New Hampshire, Vermont, and southwestern Maine … In New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, it is now (1911) practically gone except where it has been imported”. Also: “In 1898 the destruction of most of the quail from New Hampshire to Cape Cod was reported.” [from severe winter]
It perhaps “became common” in northern New England when there was the abundance of agricultural land. As more and more of it succeeded to forest, the quail disappeared. It is now considered extirpated in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and most of New York state.
In New York it survives only on Long Island, which is the only place I have seen them in the wild. When I lived in Brooklyn in the 1980s, my friend Hylie and I went for a walk at Jamaica Bay, a large estuary on the south shore between Brooklyn and Queens. The landscape there consists of salt marsh and scrub with a few groves of wind-swept trees. By all accounts, bobwhites like open country, whether in the form of agricultural fields, natural grasslands, or open woodlands with clumps of brush to hide in.
Colinus virginianus is the northernmost member of a genus that includes three other species, the rest of which range through Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Once thought to be related to Old World quails, the Odonotophoridae are now regarded as a quite separate family, while the Old World quail are part of the Phasianidae, or pheasants.
C. virginianus is very wide-ranging and includes 23 subspecies. Most of them have white (male) or tan (female) throats and a broad white or tan stripe leading from the bill over the eye and down the side of the neck. The head has a short, ragged crest. The eastern subspecies has a pale rufous band around the chest that extends onto the upper back. The wings and the tail appear gray in flight. But when the bird is at rest, the balance of its plumage is a complex pattern of brown, black, gray, and white. They are tiny as galliform birds go, no bigger than a robin, but much more plump and rounded.
Quail are sociable animals, often seen in coveys of 20 or so animals. Although the males make a loud bob-WHITE call, the conversational chatter of the group consists of all kinds of warbles, chirps, purrs, and other musical sounds.
Many older readers may recall the book “That Quail, Robert,” published by Margaret Stanger in 1966. A retired doctor and his wife, Tommy and Mildred Kienzle, took an unhatched egg into their house after a female quail had escorted 12 other chicks into the brush beyond their Cape Cod lawn. The hatched chick imprinted on the human couple and became part of their household. Stanger’s book is equal parts Disneyesque charm and nicely observed natural history. Like all galliform birds, quails are precocial; the chicks can walk and forage within minutes of hatching. Robert proved to be no exception. But whereas wild quail are known to be quite timid, Robert turned out to be very outgoing and even a little bossy.
The Kienzles made a couple of efforts to be responsible toward the wild bird, but mother quails do not accept a chick back into the brood after it has been touched by human hands. Robert also demonstrated no interest in his mother or siblings, even though they continued to live and forage in the backyard. Tommy and Mildred also spoke with their local Audubon sanctuary, but were told that they were having better success at quail-raising than the sanctuary staff did.
The Kienzles shared their home with Robert (who proved to be a female) for four years before she succumbed to a growth in her beak that made it impossible to eat. During that time they fed her commercial bird seed, but she also entirely rid their house of spiders. They observed that the mother quail in their backyard tapped the ground several times when she found food and that brought her chicks running. The Kienzles tapped the floor when they saw an insect or spider and Robert came running to devour it.
Once popular game birds, if they are to be hunted, bobwhites are now largely raised at game farms. In the wild they are classified as “near-threatened” over most of their range. However, their popularity for hunting has caused them to be introduced to several countries in Europe and to New Zealand.
The “masked” bobwhite subspecies of Arizona and northern Mexico faced extinction early in this century. Conservation efforts are aided by their fecundity. In captivity females may lay 80 eggs in a season, scattering them around the enclosure if not allowed to make a nest. Thousands of sanctuary-raised masked bobwhites are now being reintroduced to the Sonoran Desert.
Bill Chaisson has been a birdwatcher from the age of 10. He is a former managing editor of the Eagle Times and now lives and works in the town of Wilmot. Contact him at [email protected].
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