The Rise of the Quail

By Laci Jones

Quail hunting is a long-standing tradition in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, many Oklahomans have seen fewer quail in the state throughout the past few decades.

“The decline has been throughout the United States with different species of quail,” said Scott Cox, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation senior upland game biologist.

However, quail numbers have been on the rise in recent years in Oklahoma, according to Cox.

Two quail species reside in Oklahoma: northern bobwhite and scaled. The scaled quail is mainly found in the panhandle and the extreme western part of the state, while the northern bobwhite is found statewide.

The scaled quail, also known as blue quail, can be identified by its pale gray plumage. This medium-sized bird has a bushy white crest and a scaled pattern over its neck, chest and belly.

The northern bobwhite quail are small and plump. The males are chestnut, brown and white with a white throat and black plumage on their head. Similar to the males, the female northern bobwhite is a reddish color with a buffy throat and eyebrow.

“When we did research in the ‘90s, it was thought that quail stayed within a 40-acre area their whole life,” Cox said.

Cox and other researchers with ODWC and Oklahoma State University tracked quail as technology advanced. Using radio transmitters, the researchers found that quail move several miles in the spring and fall shuffles. Spring shuffle is the period where the birds come out of their coveys in the spring, he explained.

The fall shuffle is when birds mix and match coveys after nesting season. This usually occurs from mid-September to mid to late November. Birds in the fall have been recorded by radio-collaring to move several miles, 3 to 50 miles to be exact, he added.

“The males will move a little bit farther in the spring,” Cox said. “But, it is not uncommon for the hens to move as far as 15 to 20 miles sometimes.”

Cox said many different dynamics have impacted quail numbers including dramatic changes to the environment. Beginning in the ‘70s, urban expansion, small farms going out of production and the introduction of exotic grasses caused quail numbers to decline, he said.

“The biggest decline by far has been the habitat factor,” Cox said. “Quail are getting on islands in some parts of the state.”

Quail are a shrub forb native-grass obligate, he said. Quail require a mixture of grasses, weeds and shrubs.

“To have good numbers of quail like we did this year in the western part of Oklahoma, they have to have large expansions of native grasses and shrub components quail can utilize,” Cox said.

Quail favor Oklahoma-native grasses including little bluestem, big bluestem, switchgrass and Indian grass. The grasses are mixed with weeds like ragweed, sunflower and pigweeds as well as small, mid-range shrubs like sand plums, skunkbrush and wild rose.

“The worst thing for quail is a monoculture of grasses,” he explained. “They require a lot of diversity for their diet and for thermal cover and nesting cover.”

Farmers and ranchers across the state spray for weeds and introduce new grasses, Cox explained.

For example, farmers and ranchers are planting Bermuda grass and fescue for cattle grazing or hay in the northeast part of the state, Cox explained. However, this is also a problem statewide, he added­. The western part of the state does not have the Bermuda grass or fescue, but grasses like weeping lovegrass, plains blustem and old world bluestem are introduced.

“The urban sprawl has also taken some of the better habitat and changed over into timber stands or cleared for monoculture type areas,” Cox said.

In the last 20 to 25 years, housing developments have sprung up in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and other large towns across the state, which is eliminating or changing the dynamics of their preferred habitat. However, quail can be found in those fragmented segments if large enough acreage is available, he added.

Cox said the lack of prescribed burning on the landscape has also had a negative impact on quail numbers.

“Quail are an early-successional type of animal,” he explained. “What pops up in that first year after a burn are weeds and forbs, which are ideal feeding locations for quail.”

The second factor that affects quail is weather conditions, which goes hand-in-hand with habitat loss, Cox said. Weather conditions like hot, dry summers are not helpful for quail reproduction, he explained.

Cox became the senior upland game biologist within the last three years, when Oklahoma was coming out of the drought. He said hunter numbers and quail numbers were also at an all-time low.

“When we had the drought, it got so hot that the hens stopped nesting in the heat of the summer,” he explained. “If you have these mild summers like we have had in recent years— the wetter, cooler summers, that is the best conditions for birds to have good success to raise a lot of birds.”

Quail number and hunter numbers have doubled each year since the drought ended in June 2013, Cox said. Based on roadside surveys conducted in Aug. and Oct., quail numbers have increased almost 60 percent from 2014.

“Western Oklahoma is the area in the state that has the best population of birds,” Cox said.

The northwest region showed a 101 percent increase, while the southwest region showed a 78.4 percent increase compared to 2014.

Some parts of northeast and southeast Oklahoma have seen an increase in quail numbers, but he said it is not a dramatic increase like in the northwest and southwest regions.

However, quail numbers in the south-central and north-central parts of the state have declined the past couple of years compared to the other regions, Cox said. Based on the roadside surveys, the north-central and south-central regions showed an 18 and 83 percent decline, respectively.

“We haven’t pin-pointed exactly what is going on in the south-central part of the state besides habitat loss, invasion of eastern red cedar and bad fragmentation,” Cox explained. “The south-central region is not quite a bottleneck, but quail have a hard time moving or shuffling from one area to another.”

Cox said he expects quail numbers to fluctuate throughout the years, especially when Oklahoma has very hot and dry summers. However, ODWC and OSU continue to work together on different research projects including quail nest structures, aflatoxins in seeds, insect productions, aerial predators in western Oklahoma and other environmental impacts.

The research conducted by ODWC and OSU helps give landowners information to best manage their property. A common mistake landowners make is over or under grazing along with the lack of prescribed burning, Cox said. Poor land management can have a negative impact on the quail habitat, he added.

“If it looks like a golf course on someone’s property, then it’s not going to be conducive for quail,” he said. “Grazing is great as long as it’s done the right way.”

The National Resources Conservation Services can help adjust a landowner’s grazing rates to be more productive for cattlemen.

“The landowner has to make a living,” Cox said, “but, if you can try and help them balance property and not overgraze or under graze, and put prescribed burning in the picture, they can be productive on a piece of property as long it has native structure.”

The ODWC has wildlife technical assistance programs for landowners including wetland, habitat and quail restoration program, he said. Private land biologists can assess property to give management recommendations depending on the landowners’ needs.

“It’s not just quail,” he added. “These management programs can help other non-game species like monarch butterflies and honeybees.”

For more information on ODWC technical assistance programs, visit wildlifedepartment.com.

This article originally appeared in the February 2016 issue of Oklahoma Farm & Ranch.