The roosting habits and ecology of Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) are not well documented. Previous researchers have reported that bobwhites roost in open grassland with herbaceous vegetation heights ranging from 30-90 cm. However, information from a pilot study on bobwhites conducted in the Edwards Plateau ecogregion of Texas revealed that the configuration of their roost sites may differ substantially from prior findings. As a result, we initiated a study in 2015 to quantify roost-site selection of bobwhites in the Edwards Plateau. Bobwhites were radio-marked and located an hour after dark once per week to locate roost sites during January�?'August. We sampled vegetation the following day at the roost site and at a paired random site. Unlike bobwhites in other portions of their range, >90% of bobwhite roost sites (n =70) were located in low growing woody cover instead of grassland. We are currently analyzing these data to develop resource-selection functions to determine preference-avoidance of vegetative attributes. Understanding roosting habits and ecology will aid in making important decisions regarding habitat management and restoration.
Oral presentation and poster titles, abstracts, and authors from the Society for Range Management (SRM) Annual Meetings and Tradeshows, from 2013 forward.