Texas Bobwhites: A Guide to Their Foods and Habitat Management

Northern bobwhites are one of the most popular game birds in the United States. In Texas alone, nearly 100,000 hunters take to the field each fall and winter to pursue wild bobwhite quail. Texas is arguably the last remaining state with sufficient habitat to provide quail-hunting opportunities on a grand scale, and Texas ranchers with good bobwhite habitat often generate a greater proportion of their income from fees paid by quail hunters than from livestock production. Managing and expanding bobwhite habitat makes good sense economically, and it benefits the environment as well. The rangelands and woodlands of Texas that produce quail also support scores of other species of wildlife.

Texas Bobwhites is a field guide to the seeds commonly eaten by northern bobwhites, as well as a handbook for conserving and improving northern bobwhite habitat. It provides identifying characteristics for the seeds of 91 species of grasses, forbs, woody plants, and succulents. Each seed description includes a close-up and a scale photo of the seed and the plant that produces it, along with a range map. Using this information, hunters can readily identify concentrations of plants that are most likely to attract quail. Landowners and rangeland managers will greatly benefit from the book's state-of-the-art guidance for habitat management and restoration, including improving habitat dominated by invasive and nonnative grasses.

• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Introduction: Why This Book Is Needed and Why It Is Important
• 2. Food Habits and Nutrition of the Northern Bobwhite
• 3. Common Seeds Eaten by Bobwhites
• 4. Northern Bobwhite Habitat Management and Restoration
• 5. Exotic Grasses: A Growing Problem for Northern Bobwhites
• Appendix 1: Other Plant Species Seeds Reported in Northern Bobwhite Diets in Texas
• Appendix 2: Other Wildlife That Utilize Seeds Eaten by Northern Bobwhites
• Appendix 3: Common and Scientific Names of Plants and Animals Mentioned in Text
• Glossary
• References
• Index

Jon Larson is a wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Timothy E. Fulbright, Leonard A. Brennan, Fidel Hernández, and Fred C. Bryant are with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University–Kingsville. Fulbright is a regents professor and is Meadows Professor in Semiarid Land Ecology. Brennan holds the C. C. Winn Endowed Chair for Quail Research. Hernández is an associate professor and holds the Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., Endowed Professorship of Quail Research. Bryant is the Leroy G. Denman, Jr., Endowed Director of Wildlife Research.