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Northern bobwhite Facts

Northern bobwhite Facts
Northern bobwhite is a bird that belongs to the family of New World quails. There are 21 subspecies of northern bobwhite that can be found in the USA, Mexico and Caribbean. Northern bobwhite exists on the planet at least 2.5 million years (based on the excavated fossils). These birds inhabit farmlands, scrublands and edges of the forests. Number of northern bobwhites has dropped for nearly 82% in the past 50 years due to accelerated development of agriculture, habitat loss, wildfires and hunt. Subspecies of northern bobwhite, known as masked bobwhite is listed as endangered.
Interesting Northern bobwhite Facts:
Northern bobwhite can reach 9.4 to 11 inches in length and 4.6 to 6.1 ounces of weight.
Northern bobwhite has black head, white eye line and throat, reddish-brown body, grey markings on the wings, white stripes on the flanks and grey tail. Females are slightly duller in color.
Northern bobwhite has short, curved bill, chunky, roundish body and short tail.
Northern bobwhite is active early in the morning and late in the afternoon (diurnal).
Northern bobwhite eats seed, fruit, berries, buds, leaves, insects, spiders and snails. Seed are major source of food during the winter, and insects during the summer.
Northern bobwhite is ground dwelling bird that flies only to escape from the predators.
Natural enemies of northern bobwhites are snakes, birds of prey (hawks and owls), raccoons, opossums, skunks and foxes.
Northern bobwhites are sedentary birds (they do not migrate during the winter).
Name "bobwhite" refers to the whistling calls that sound like "bob-white" or "bob-bob-white", which northern bobwhites produce. These calls are especially loud and frequent during the spring.
Males spread their wings and tails, fluff up their feathers and rush toward the females or walk around them as a part of courtship ritual. Both males and females mate with couple of different partners during the mating season and produce 2 to 3 broods per year.
Nest is shallow depression in the ground lined with leaves and grass and covered with arch made of weed. Both male and female participate in the construction of the nest.
Female lays 12 to 16 eggs that hatch after 23 to 24 days. Both parents participate in the incubation of eggs. Young birds leave the nest shortly after hatching, but they depend on their parents until the age of 14 to 16 days. Diet of young northern bobwhites consists of insects during the first 6 to 8 weeks of life.
Young northern bobwhites learn to fly at the age of 2 to 3 weeks. When predators detect chicks, parents pretend to have wing injury to distract the predators and save their offspring.
Northern bobwhites reach sexual maturity at the age of 1 year.
Northern bobwhite can survive more than 6 years in the wild.


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