Northern Bobwhite joins the list of breeding birds at the Bafflin Preserve in Pomfret. But for this grassland species, there’s more to the story

A male Northern Bobwhite photographed at the Bafflin Preserve in Pomfret by Jeff Fengler.

In the sanctuaries …
July 31, 2023 — One of the great things about the bird world is that you just never know. You never know, for example, when a species that hasn’t nested in the state in 20 or 30 years will suddenly settle down and raise a family on your sanctuary, which is what a pair of Northern Bobwhite did this year at Connecticut Audubon’s Bafflin Preserve in Pomfret.

The dozens of volunteers who scoured the state from 2018 through 2021 for the Connecticut Bird Atlas did not find nesting Northern Bobwhite.

If you look at eBird it’s hard to find them nesting anywhere in the northeast.

But in 2023, they nested at the Bafflin Preserve.

Bafflin sprawls across 700 acres of Pomfret’s gentle hills. Andy Rzeznikiewicz, Connecticut Audubon’s sanctuary manager in the northeast part of the state, manages it for grassland birds. Bobolinks nest there, as do Savannah Sparrows. Sedge Wrens nested there in 2017 and 2018.

Last fall, Andy reported a covey of two dozen bobwhite, and then he saw a dozen in the spring.

Mark and Lucy Clark reported on eBird that they came across 14 birds in June: “Saw a female with 12 babies. Separately, we saw a lone male on the bench near the center calling.”

And when Andy was mowing trails at the preserve about three weeks ago, he scared up four fledged young.

This eBird map shows the locations where Northern Bobwhite were reported over the last 10 years. Every one of the observations were of birds considered to be escapes.

Bobwhite were common a century and more ago when the region was predominantly farmland. And as recently as the first Atlas of Breeding Birds of Connecticut, which was published in 1994 based on field work from 1982 to 1986, bobwhite were either confirmed or probable breeders in more than half the atlas blocks in the state.

But the 1994 atlas reported that Connecticut’s bobwhite had declined by 8.6% a year from 1966 to 1989, the “continuation of a long-term decline of this species since the 1800s.”

Robert A. Askins, a nationally recognized authority who is now the Katharine Blunt Professor Emeritus of Biology at Connecticut College, is the author of that 1994 atlas account. He wrote that “the main cause of the population decline was probably loss of suitable habitat. The Northern Bobwhite has exceptionally specific habitat requirements. It needs low dense grass or forbs to hide the nest, dead grass stems for nest construction, patches of open ground for feeding, and some woody or brushy cover for protection in the winter.” 

That kind of habitat faded with farming in Connecticut, and with it went the bobwhite.

And yet people still see and report Northern Bobwhite in Connecticut. Check the accompanying map from eBird — it shows dozens of locations over the last 10 years, and those of course are only the observations people sent to eBird; plenty of people presumably saw or heard bobwhites but didn’t report it.

Lisa Shea photographed this bobwhite in late July near her home in Columbia, Connecticut.

The explanation is that Connecticut allows captive-bred game birds such as bobwhite to be brought into the state to be used on game farms for hunting and for training hunting dogs. It also allows game farms to breed game birds, with a license (34 game breeder licenses have been issued for 2023 statewide).

Inevitably some birds escape or are released — a former regional board member for our Pomfret Center said, “Thousands are raised and released by private individuals every year and most don’t live long.” That’s probably what happened in Pomfret.

Yet it seems to be highly unusual for escaped bobwhite to successfully nest. 

There are ample reports on eBird of people hearing the distinctive “bob-white” call over the past 10 years. But Professor Chris Elphick of the University of Connecticut, who is overseeing the current Connecticut Bird Atlas, said there were no confirmed breeding pairs during the 5-year fieldwork period.

Greg Hanisek, editor of the Connecticut Ornithological Association’s The Connecticut Warbler quarterly journal, said he doesn’t know of any escaped bobwhite having nested in the state.

What will happen to the birds in Pomfret? Winter weather can be hard on quail, so who knows if they will survive. Andy Griswold, Connecticut Audubon’s EcoTravel director, says bobwhite are “very nomadic,” so if they wander off the Bafflin Preserve they might encounter hunters.

In other words, the odds might be against them making it through the winter to nest again. But one of the great things about the bird world is that you just never know.