Nests are placed on the ground and are hidden by shrubs, weeds or marshy growth. The female spends much of her time with or near the young while the male is kept busy hunting food for his growing family. The usual clutch contains 5 white or pale-blue eggs, lightly marked with brown spots.
On tireless wings
They scan your fields
In search of rodents
Which cut your yields.
Bobwhite
Colinus virginianus
This chunky little brown quail is popular in every region where he resides. Hunters spend thousands of dollars each year in pursuit of this feathered bombshell. Farmers appreciate having such an active ally in their fight against the hordes of insects which menace their crops. They enjoy hearing his cheerful whistle as they go about their daily chores. Birders are happy to know this is one bird which offers no problem for they can list him by either sight or sound. Anyone can point with pride to this bird’s good character for the male can, and often does, take charge of the brood, teaching them how to exist in a hostile world.
The male shows a white throat and line over the eye, while the female is content to wear buffy feathers which make her only a little less colorful. Bobwhites nest and roost on the ground and will spend their entire lives in a limited area if shelter, food and water are available. Many farmers co-operate with their little neighbors by planting blackberries, multiflora rose, or raspberries along their fences, not farming the last inch of every corner of the field. Some even leave a little milo or other grain unharvested near the edge of their fields. Such practices pay dividends in the harvest of insects consumed by Bobwhites.
Some like to shoot