Conditions of the Covey: Researchers search for answer to quail population decline
Monday, January 12, 2026
Media Contact: Sophia Fahleson | Digital Communications Specialist | 405-744-7063 | sophia.fahleson@okstate.edu
Quail are nostalgic birds for many Oklahomans, from avid bird hunters to landowners used to hearing their distinctive call.
However, the northern bobwhite population is decreasing across the nation. Oklahoma State University researchers are working to identify the cause of decline.
For the past 25 years, OSU researchers have been studying northern bobwhite across Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.
The research is led by Craig Davis, natural resource ecology and management professor and Bollenbach chair, and Sam Fuhlendorf, natural resource ecology and management Regents professor and Groendyke chair.
Fuhlendorf’s first quail project at OSU in 1998 took him to Mesa Vista Ranch in Pampa, Texas, which then belonged to T. Boone Pickens II, an OSU benefactor.
“Mr. Pickens was involved in much of the day-to-day activities of the research project,” Fuhlendorf said. “He interacted frequently with graduate students and faculty.”
It was important for Pickens to find a way to have quail on his ranch, Fuhlendorf added.
“This is where we first started looking at the temperature effects and realizing it could be the thing that mostly causes the boom-bust,” Fuhlendorf said.
Boom and bust describe the cycles in the inconsistent increase and decrease of quail populations, he added.
“The real question is, ‘How can you have this boom-bust sort of thing going on?’” Fuhlendorf said, “But, then, you can also have a long-term declining.”
Many factors play a role in the decline of the quail population, Fuhlendorf said. Weather, climate change, habitat loss and degradation seem to be the main reasons, he added.
“Good northern bobwhite habitat in western Oklahoma consists of open mixed-grass prairies with a patchwork of native grasses, forbs and scattered low shrubs such as sand plum, shinnery oak and sumac,” Davis said.
Habitat change and degradation can come in all shapes and sizes, Fuhlendorf said, from an increase of woody plants like eastern red cedar, to certain farming patterns to human developments of lands.
“Eastern red cedars are harmful to bobwhite quail habitat,” Davis said. “As cedars spread, they shade out native grasses and forbs that quail need for nesting, brood cover and food.”
One way to help with this issue is through prescribed burns or mechanical removal, Davis said.
Researchers are also considering how extreme temperatures are affecting the northern bobwhite population, Fuhlendorf said.
The quail struggle to reproduce during heat waves and can suffer high mortality throughout cold spells in Oklahoma, he added.
The use of GPS units and cameras in front of nests have allowed researchers to observe the quail trying to keep their nests at a consistent temperature, Fuhlendorf said.
Male quail have also been found to help the females incubate the eggs to assist with temperature control of the nest. This can potentially create a 30-degree difference between the nest and the surrounding area, Davis said.
On cold mornings, quail will stay in their nest to keep the eggs warm, and then, in warm evenings, they try to keep the nest cool, Fuhlendorf said.
Davis and Fuhlendorf also noticed quail leave the nest to feed when the temperature starts to warm, potentially allowing the nest to stay cooler.
When Oklahoma experiences heat waves, it interferes with keeping the nest and eggs at the temperature needed for survival, Fuhlendorf said.
A lot of quail will abandon the nest because they cannot keep it at a consistent temperature, he added.
“Think about just how hard a day in the life of a quail would be,” Fuhlendorf said.
Quail not only worry about temperature, they also worry about predators trying to eat them and their eggs, Fuhlendorf added.
“In some of the videos, we’ve seen quail sort of bow up to predators to defend their nest,” Fuhlendorf said.
The interesting thing about the fluctuation of the quail population is when the conditions are perfect, quail often reproduce quickly and easily, Davis said. In the past, quail were believed to have monogamous behavior.
However, when the conditions are right, females will mate with multiple males and can have several nests at once during the season, Davis said.
Davis and Fuhlendorf are also working with a graduate student who is conducting research on how noise affects the quail population.
Hunting and oil development noises can keep male and female quail from hearing each other’s mating calls, said Jullianna McCauley, natural resource ecology and management graduate research assistant.
“I use automated recording units specifically to track how their calling behaviors and attendance rate change over time,” McCauley said.
McCauley uses the units to record noises in northern bobwhite habitats, allowing her to assess how the effect of noise on calling rates and loudness of calls, she said.
“We can also measure abundances via how many vocalizations we can hear with the automated recording units,” McCauley said.
McCauley found that northern bobwhite quail are significantly affected by pumpjack noise, she said.
If we want to bring quail into the future for our grandkids and generations to come, we need to start thinking about what habitat will be available to them, Fuhlendorf said.
“We need to start planning now,” Fuhlendorf said.
Story by Kara Miner | Cowboy Journal
Science of Sound
Migratory patterns of northern bobwhite have the potential to be impacted by a variety of different human and environmental factors.
Researchers at Oklahoma State University have recently started researching the influence of sound.
Jullianna McCauley’s master’s thesis, “The Spatiotemporal Distribution of Anthropogenic
Noise and Impacts on Grassland Birds Response,” focuses on anthropogenic noise, specifically
low-frequency noise from hunting and oil development that often
occurs at similar frequencies as quail vocalizations.
This is known as acoustic masking and previous research observes quail react to acoustic masking by:
- Vocalizing at different frequencies to compete with disruptive background noise, which results in more energy allocated to calling.
- Calling less frequently in an area, which leads to decreased mating success and overall populations.
- Leaving the habitat with anthropogenic noise in search for new, non-fragmented areas.
Source: Jullianna McCauley