WarbleThe bird whistling bob-WHITE is a Northern Bobwhite, a small quail of farms, brushy fields, roadsides and wood edges in the eastern and central United States. The call is two clear notes, sometimes three, poor-bob-WHITE, slow and widely spaced, with the pitch climbing about an octave by the end. You hear it mostly in spring and summer, when males are looking for mates. If it seems rarer than you remember, it is: eastern numbers fell by roughly 85 percent between 1966 and 2014.
Open Warble and tap the green button while the bird calls. The app names it on your phone in seconds, even with no signal.
Let Warble listen, freeListen: the likeliest bird
Few mnemonics are this literal: the call and the bird's name are the same two words. Audubon's field guide writes it bob-WHITE or poor-bob-WHITE. Wikipedia gives bob-WHITE or bob-bob-WHITE. The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation files it under birds that say their own name, spelled BOB-WHITE, and the Missouri Department of Conservation writes Bob White! for the mating-season call.
Wikipedia describes the whistle as slow, with widely spaced syllables, rising about an octave from start to finish. In practice that sounds like an offhand bob followed by a loud, ringing WHITE that slides up like a question. Sometimes an extra note sneaks in at the front, which is where poor-bob-white comes from. The Oklahoma guide says males give the call while searching for a mate, and adds that females have also been documented whistling it.
In fall, a different whistle
By autumn the tune changes. The Missouri guide gives the fall call as koi-lee, and notes that coveys of 5 to 30 birds form in autumn and stay together until spring breeding begins. Audubon puts the average covey at about a dozen birds through fall and winter, and Wikipedia says a winter roost can hold two dozen or more. Wikipedia also lists quieter sounds, lisps and peeps, plus faster whistled warning calls. So a whistle in October that is not quite bob-white may still be a bobwhite covey talking among itself.
The breeding season is long, too: Missouri notes that a pair can raise up to three clutches before it ends around October.
Why you hear it less than your grandparents did
If you remember bobwhites calling all summer near a family farm and rarely hear one now, your memory is not playing tricks. Wikipedia reports that the bobwhite population in eastern North America fell by roughly 85 percent from 1966 to 2014, and calls the decline range-wide and continuing. Audubon says the bird has disappeared from much of the northern part of its range and declined seriously even farther south, and the IUCN rates it Near Threatened.
The main driver, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, is habitat loss and changing land use. Bobwhites are grassland birds that also need shrubby cover, and their chicks need a particular mix: shrubs to hide in, open ground with bare patches, and green plants rich in forbs and legumes. Grass alone makes poor brood habitat. Wikipedia adds that changes in land use and fire regimes have made former prime habitat less suitable. Audubon notes that unusually harsh winters can kill many birds at the northern edge of the range, but that weather does not explain such a widespread loss.
There is some good news. The Missouri guide says landscapes where habitat work and farming practices suit bobwhite needs have held steady population trends, and in Missouri the bird is still a fairly common permanent resident wherever the habitat is right.
The bob-white that is not a bobwhite
One caution before you mark it down. The Missouri guide notes that the call, distinctive as it is, is mimicked by a number of other bird species, so hearing it does not prove a quail is nearby. A real bobwhite keeps to dense, low cover in farm country and brushy fields. If the singer switches to a string of other birds' songs, you have found one of the imitators.
How to tell what you heard
- Two or three slow, clear notes with the last one sliding sharply up, in spring or summer: Northern Bobwhite.
- A koi-lee whistle in fall: a bobwhite covey.
- The same whistle tucked into a medley of other songs: a mimic, not a quail.
- Check the habitat: farms, brushy open country, roadsides, overgrown fields and wood edges with dense, low cover.
- Check the map: the eastern and central states, west to Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and the Colorado foothills.
Bobwhites are often heard rather than seen, so if the whistle comes from deep in the grass, Warble can listen and confirm the singer from the sound alone.
Questions people ask
Why don't I hear bobwhites anymore?
Because there are far fewer of them. The eastern North American population fell by roughly 85 percent from 1966 to 2014, and the bird has vanished from much of its northern range. Missouri's conservation department points mainly to habitat loss and changing land use.
Do female bobwhites whistle bob-white?
Sometimes. The call is mainly the male's, given while he looks for a mate, but the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation notes that females have also been documented whistling the same tune.
Is the bobwhite a quail?
Yes. Audubon calls it the only native quail in the East. It is a permanent resident wherever it lives, and in fall and winter it gathers in coveys of about a dozen birds.
Sources
- National Audubon Society, Guide to North American Birds: Northern Bobwhite. www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-bobwhite
- Wikipedia: Northern bobwhite (call, range, population decline). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_bobwhite
- Missouri Department of Conservation, Field Guide: Northern Bobwhite. mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/northern-bobwhite
- Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation: Birding by Ear, tips for identifying bird songs. www.wildlifedepartment.com/outdoorok/ooj/birding-ear-tips-identifying-bird-songs