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Northern Bobwhite

Silhouette Game BirdsGame Birds
Northern BobwhiteColinus virginianus
  • ORDER: Galliformes
  • FAMILY: Odontophoridae

Basic Description

An emphatic, whistled bob-white ringing from a grassy field or piney woods has long been a characteristic sound of summers in the Eastern countryside. It’s quite a bit harder to spot a Northern Bobwhite, as the bird’s elegantly dappled plumage offers excellent camouflage. They forage in groups, scurrying between cover or bursting into flight if alarmed. Bobwhites have been in sharp decline throughout the past half-century, likely owing to habitat loss and changes in agriculture, and they are an increasingly high priority for conservation.

More ID Info
image of range map for Northern Bobwhite
Year-roundBreedingMigrationNonbreeding
Range map provided by Birds of the World
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Find This Bird

Despite their sharp population decline, it’s still possible to find Northern Bobwhite in fields, rangelands, and open forests over much of their range. Their call is one of the easiest to learn of all bird sounds. The two sharp, whistled notes really do sound like “bob-white!”—and the call carries a long distance, so if bobwhite are around you will probably know it long before you see them. Look for these unobtrusive birds pecking and scratching on the ground near to or underneath vegetation—or, more likely, bursting upward into a short flight of flurrying wings if you get too close.

Other Names

  • Colín de Virginia (Spanish)
  • Colin de Virginie (French)

Backyard Tips

In places where bobwhites are common, they may eat bird seed from ground feeders in open backyards with shrub cover.

  • Cool Facts