Read more about the available CCRP Practices:
Five Types of Quail Habitat
CONTACTS FOR
MORE
INFORMATION
Bill Schoenberger,
Buffer Coordinator
E-mail: Bill
Call:
620-365-2901 x 3
or
620-223-1880 x 3
| 1. Brooding Cover | |
| This is made up of annual plants such as ragweed, pigweed, annual lespedeza and foxtail with little litter at ground level. Good brood rearing cover will have plenty of open spaces at ground level with an overhead canopy of grasses and forbs. An abundance of forbs and legumes will also provide a variety of insects, which chicks need for rapid development and hens need for nesting. Recently disturbed areas typically provide good brooding cover for one to three years. At least 40 percent of a covey’s home range should be in brooding cover. Many CRP fields in Kansas lack this type of cover-and therefore quail populations. | |
| 2. Nesting Cover |
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| This type of cover is made up of grasses with the previous year’s litter at least 8 inches tall for nesting building and concealment. Nesting cover should make up of at least 30 percent of a covey’s home range. Clumpy grasses such as native warm-season grasses are preferred. Quail nest research in Missouri has shown that quail prefer to nest within 50 feet of an edge. Similar research in Iowa showed a preference for nesting within 80 feet of an edge. Edge is generally considered the boundary between another habitat type, such as a crop field, covey headquarters, pasture, woodland, etc. Sometimes patches of weeds, which serve as brood rearing cover, may occur in an area of nesting cover and the boundaries between these areas can also be considered an edge. The more edge created within nesting cover, the more opportunities there will be for quail nesting and brood rearing. Strip disking, patch burning, food-plot planting or covey headquarters establishment are some ways to create edge within nesting cover. | |
| 3. Roosting Cover | |
| This cover type includes herbaceous vegetation such as ragweed, food plots and recently disturbed grasses at least 12 to 36 inches tall with at least 25 percent bare ground for easy movement. Quail usually do not roost in shrubby cover or woody draws except during periods of ice or snowy weather. | |
| 4. Escape Cover |
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| Used daily throughout the year and after snow or ice flatten the grasses and forbs, this cover type includes brushy fencerows, plum and dogwood thickets, edge feathering, downed tree structures (loose brush piles), forage sorghum and broom-corn food plots. Ideally, 20 percent of the home range should be made up of shrubby cover. Shrub thickets, edge feathering and downed tree structures should be scattered throughout and along the edges of grass fields. Missouri research shows that quail rarely venture further than 70 feet from woody cover. Low-growing woody or shrubby cover is often a limiting factor in and around many CRP fields in Kansas. | |
| 5. Food Cover | |
| Quail prefer such foods as annual seeds, including pigweed, ragweed, foxtail and lambsquarter. During the summer, young quail depend on insects for food. In the winter, quail make use of food plots, especially during heavy snow or ice storms. Milo, forage sorghum, millet, corn and sunflowers are good sources of winter food. | |