What is the Tennessee State Game Bird?
Bobwhite Quail is the state game bird of Tennessee. Tennessee titled the Bobwhite Quail as its official state game bird of Tennessee in 1988. Bobwhite Quail is also known as a partridge. Bobwhite quail is a small bird. It is a lumpy brown bird with a tiny tail. A male bobwhite quail has a white throat which is very distinctive. It has white streak above the eyes. The female Bobwhite quail has a toned throat covering and eye streaks.
Average lifespan of Bobwhite quail is around six months, but it can survive up to five years in the wild. In springtime the male bobwhite shrieks a clear bobwhite song which the female bobwhite replies with a whistle of 4-syllable. The bobwhite quail lays 10-20 white eggs generally. They lay more eggs than almost any other bird.
State Game Bird of Tennessee Facts —
- Common name: Bobwhite Quail
- Scientific name: Colinusvirginianus
- Habitat: open pine forest, overgrown fields, shrubby areas, grasslands etc.
- Diet: tick, snail, grasshopper, potato beetles, grass seeds, wild berries, partridge peas etc
- Song and Calls: sharp whistles and soft contact calls to stay in touch and a soft tu-tu-tu sound to point out food to the chicks
- Weight: 129-159 g
- Length: 24-28 cm
- Wingspan: 33-38 cm
- Average lifespan: around six months, but can survive up to five years in the wild
- Incubation period: 22-24 day
Tennesseestate game bird, Bobwhite Quail has history as a game bird and it is one of the most rigorously studied bird species in the whole world. Scientists have studied the impacts of several human activities, from pesticide use to arranged burning, on both wild and caged bobwhites. Bobwhites Quails are divided into 22 categories. Some of these were previously considered to be detached species. They are the Masked Bobwhite, the Rufus-bellied Bobwhite, and the Black-headed Bobwhite.
The female Bobwhites generally look alike but the male birds vary intensely from one subspecies to the other. Bobwhite Quails were always thought to be monogamous. Not too long ago, researchers started radio-tracking the birds to follow their actions. The finding came out that both male and female birds can have numerous mates in one season. The bobwhite genus is epitomized by more than 700 identified fossils. The fossils were dug up in sites reaching from Florida to Arizona to the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
Some of these found fossils are 2.5 million years old at least. Their average lifespan is six months to five years. The oldest Northern Bobwhite on record was 6 years, 5 months old. Bobwhite Quails have short life spans which make up for it with fertile breeding capabilities. Under optimal conditions, in a single breeding season, a bobwhite couple can make 2 or 3 broods, adding up 25 descendants or more.
Bobwhite Quails live in farming fields, grasslands, open pine or pine-hardwood forests, and grass-brush rangelands as far north as Massachusetts and southern Ontario, and as far west as southeastern Wyoming and eastern New Mexico. They seem to evade matured woodlands, dwelling instead the initial stages of regrowth after a fire, farming, logging, or other disturbance. They are most abundant in patchwork areas of fields, forests, and croplands; in coastal Texas rangelands; and in southern pine forests that are rigorously accomplished for bobwhite hunting.
Bobwhites eat mostly seeds and leaves. Chicks are fed mostly insects until they are 6–8 weeks old. Their staple food of seeds comes from agricultural crops, weeds, forest plants, and rangeland vegetation. The male and the female birds jointly choose a nest area on the ground or in low vegetation. The law designating the bobwhite quail as the official Tennessee state game bird is Section 4-1-318 (State game bird) of the Tennessee Code, Title 4 (STATE GOVERNMENT) Chapter 1 (GENERAL PROVISIONS) Part 3 (STATE SYMBOLS) Section 4-1-318.
Reference:
http://www.ereferencedesk.com
https://www.allaboutbirds.org