Laura Erickson's For the Birds

This lovely little quail gives the lie to the claim that game birds thrive because hunters provide so much “management.” Bobwhites are declining dangerously over their US range–many of the birds seen here and there (all the ones seen in my neck of the woods in northern Minnesota) are escapees from game farms. People believed that bobwhites were monogamous until researchers began radio-tracking individuals to follow their activities. It turns out that both male and female bobwhites have multiple mates in one season.