Northern Bobwhites Are February Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar

Summary: Northern bobwhites are February birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar by which the National Audubon Society announces vulnerable birds in the United States.

Crested caracaras of the southernmost United States abide southward in Caribbean America and from Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexico, "United Mexican States" literally) southward through Central America and into South America as far south as northern Brazil and northern Peru. John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851) added a Brazilian crested caracara as plate 161 to his The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 2: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Northern bobwhites are February birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar by which the National Audubon Society announces North American birds as extinct in the wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable or near-threatened birds.

Female members of the Galliformes (from Latin gallus, “male chicken” and -fōrmēs, “-shaped”) landfowl order bear one-plus brood during each year’s breeding months, January through March. That order’s Odontophoridae (from Greek ὀδοντοφόρος, “toothed” and -ειδής, “-like”) New World quail family member congregates in 10- to 20-member coveys (from Latin cubō, I incubate”). One Caribbean, seven United Statesian and 15 Mexican subspecies design their ground-level nests in agricultural fields, brushy hedges, low-cover grasslands, mixed young forests and woodland edges.

All parents-to-be ease existing vegetation into hollow, shallow nests under healthy plants, for their annual, 7- to 28-egg clutch, double-brooded in the event of lost clutches.

Physically and sexually mature females furnish cream-white or dull white, semi-glossy, sub-elliptical to oval or pear-shaped, 30- by 24-millimeter (1.18- by 0.95-inch) eggs at one-day intervals.

Both parents-to-be get food-gathering and nest-guarding responsibilities during 23- to 24-day incubations of their smooth-shelled eggs and then during 14-day nestling periods of down-covered, open-eyed hatchlings. Their precocial (from Latin prae-, “before” and coquō, “I ripen” via praecox, “precocious, premature, ripe before its time, untimely”) hatchlings have buff-pink bills, feet and legs. They invoke buff-yellow-sided heads; buff-rufous (from Latin rūfus, “red”) foreheads; black eye-nape streaks; chestnut-red crowns and napes; buff-cream-striped, chestnut-red-banded mid-backs; black-, buff-, chestnut-mottled flanks; buff-gray undersides.

Northern bobwhites join the 2022 Audubon calendar as February birds whose free-range populations perhaps join edible seed-attracting insects, snails and spiders at seed-dispensing wintertime backyard feeders.

Six-year lifespans kindle nestlings keeping downy coats their first two weeks, first feathers for their first flights as 14-day-olds and first self-feeding as 21-day-old covey members.

Northern bobwhite nestlings lose their downy coats within two months of their hatching and lodge flight-friendly feathers as four- to eight-week-olds and full-grown bodies as two-month-olds. Dense monocultures of young trees menace low-cover, open-area brushy pastures, farmland borders, grassy roadsides, roadside brush and woodland edges that maintain northern bobwhites between mating seasons. Post-breeding fathers, mothers and their fledged seasonal broods need 10- to 20-member northern bobwhite coveys (from Latin cubō, “I recline” via Old French covee, “[egg] brood”).

The 2022 Audubon calendar observes northern bobwhites as February birds occupied with their eggs, hatchlings and nestlings; and with their breeding-season, non-breeding coveys and home ranges.

Northern bobwhites, presented scientifically as Colinus virginianus (from Spanish colín, “quail” and Latin Virginia and -ānus, “of, pertaining to”), perform short, startling, swift flights and glides.

Physical and sexual maturity queues 8- to 10-inch- (20- to 25-centimeter-) long bodies with 11- to 14-inch (28- to 35-centimeter) wingspans and with 6-ounce (175-gram) weights. Northern bobwhites, regarded taxonomically by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), maturely reveal beige-, black-, brown-patterned heads; downward-curved, thick bills; fine-streaked breasts; and marked upper-parts. Black-and-white-faced, white-throated mature males tan-faced, tan-throated mature females sound hoi and hoi-lee calls to reunite dispersed flocks and bob-WHITE, bob-bob-WHITE and poor-bob-WHITE whistles during breeding-season months.

Caribbean, Central, North and South American hunters threaten northern bobwhites, as chicken-like, plump, tasty gamebirds that turn up as February birds on the 2022 Audubon calendar.

Northern bobwhites are low-cover, open-area residents of the eastern United States, southward to the Caribbean island of Cuba and through Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexico, "United Mexican States") and Guatemala; Geographical Distribution Map of Northern Bobwhite, June 27, 2018: Cephas, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Northern bobwhites, acknowledged commonly as Virginian partridges and scientifically as Colinus virginianus and analyzed taxonomically by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778), appear on plate 76 of The Birds of America From Original Drawings (1827-1830), vol. 1, by John James Audubon (April 26, 1785-Jan. 27, 1851): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:76_Virginian_Partridge.jpg; No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/search/searchterm/V.01/field/source/mode/all/conn/and/order/file/page/2 (main page); No copyright, via Cincinnati Public Library @ https://digital.cincinnatilibrary.org/digital/collection/p16998coll33/id/77/rec/78 (specific image URL)

Northern bobwhites are low-cover, open-area residents of the eastern United States, southward to the Caribbean island of Cuba and through Estados Unidos Mexicanos (Mexico, "United Mexican States") and Guatemala; Geographical Distribution Map of Northern Bobwhite, June 27, 2018: Cephas, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Colinus_virginianus_map.svg

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J. O. Harrison. 2005. "Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)." Page 114. In: Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Second edition. Princeton NJ; and Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England: Princeton University Press.

Bull, John; and John Farrand, Jr. 1997. "Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)." Pages 451-452. In: National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Eastern Region. Revised by John Farrand, Jr. Second edition. A Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; and Toronto [Ontario, Canada]: Random House of Canada Limited.

Bull, John; John Farrand, Jr.; and Miklos D. F. Udvardy. "Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Pages 535-536. In. Lauren Brown. Grasslands. The Audubon Society Nature Guides. Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Burton, Robert. "Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Page 69. In: The Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher: Birdfeeders and Bird Gardens. San Diego CA: National Audubon Society.

Carroll, John Patrick. 2002. "Northern Bobwhite Quail Colinus virginianus." Pages 461-462. In: Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. Volume 8, Birds I, edited by Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

Harrison, Kit and George. 1986. "Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)." Page 280. In: Kenneth P. Able, Robert F. Cardillo, Peter G. Connors, Susan Roney Drennan, Kimball L. Garrett, George Harrison, Kit Harrison, Bette J. Schardien Jackson, Jerome A. Jackson, J. P. Myers, Roger Tory Peterson, [and] William E. Poole. Contributing Writers Jeff Kopachena, [and] Michael McKinley. The Birds Around Us. San Ramon CA: Ortho Books.

Howell, Catherine Herbert (Writer); and Mary B. Dickinson (Editor). 1999. "Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Pages 142-143. Field Guide to the Birds of North America. Third Edition. Washington DC: National Geographic Society.

Kiser, Joy M. 2012. "Plate XVIII. Ortyx Virginianus - Quail - Bob-White Colinus virginianus - Northern Bobwhite. Illustrated by Virginia Jones. Original text by Nelson Jones." Pages 58-59. In: America's Other Audubon. New York NY: Princeton Architectural Press.

Kiser, Joy M. 2012. "Quail - Bob - White Ortyx virginianus (Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus)." Page 171. In: America's Other Audubon. New York NY: Princeton Architectural Press.

Kobasa, Paul A. (Editor-in-Chief). 2007. "Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)." Page 43. Birds of the United States and Canada. Third printing, November 2009. Chicago IL: World Book, Inc.

Mace, Alice E. (Editor). 1986. "Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)." Page 280. The Birds Around Us. Writers Kenneth P. Able, Robert F. Cardillo, Peter G. Connors, Susan Roney Drennan, Kimball L. Garrett, George Harrison, Kit Harrison, Bette J. Schardien Jackson, Jerome A. Jackson, J. P. Mers, Roger Tory Peterson and William E. Poole. Contributing Writers Jeff Kopachena and Michael McKinley. San Ramon CA: Orth Books.

Marriner, Derdriu. 1 January 2022. "Florida Scrub-Jays Are January Birds on the 2022 Audubon Calendar." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/01/florida-scrub-jays-are-january-birds-on.html

"Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission > How Can We Help You? > Discover Wildlife > Wildlife Viewing > Additional Wildlife Viewing Resources > Species Profiles > Showing All 406 Species.
Available @ https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/game-birds/northern-bobwhite/

Peterson, Roger Tory. 2010. "Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Pages 56-57. In: Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern and Central North America. With contributions from Michael Di Giorgio, Paul Lehman, Michael O'Brien and Jeffrey A. Gordon, Larry Rosche, [and] Bill Thompson. Sixth Edition. Boston MA; and New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Peterson, Roger Tory. 1947. "Bob-White. Colinus virginianus." Page 55. In: A Field Guide to the Birds Giving Field Marks of all Species Found East of the Rockies. The Peterson Field Guide Series. Second Revised and Enlarged Edition. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Robbins, Charles S.; Bertel Bruun; and Herbert S. Zim. 2001. "Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Pages 78-79. In: Birds of North America. Revised by Jonathan P. Latimer and Karen Stray Nolting and James Coe. New York NY: St. Martin's Press.

Robbins, Chandler S., Bertel Bruun, with Herbert S. Zim. 1983. "Northern Bobwhite Colínus virginiánus." Pages 92-93. In: Birds of North America. A Guide to Field Identification. New York NY: Golden Press; and Racine WI: Western Publishing Company.

Stokes, Donald and Lillian. 1996. "Northern Bobwhite Colinus virginianus." Page 131. In: Stokes Field Guide to Birds: Eastern Region. Boston [MA]; New York [NY]; Toronto [Ontario, Canada]; and London [England UK]: Little, Brown and Company.

Udvardy, Miklos D. F. 1977. "Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)." Pages 533-534. In: The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Region. A Chanticleer Press Edition. New York NY: Borzoi Book, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; and Toronto [Ontario, Canada]: Random House of Canada Limited.

Walters, Michael. 1994. "Northern Bobwhite." Page 71. In: Birds' Eggs. Eyewitness Handbooks. New York [NY USA]: Dorling Kindersley, Inc.