Supplemental feeding of northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) and dietary requirements: A review

Northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) are a well known game bird that has been extensively studied and managed throughout its range for many decades. Despite this, bobwhites have continued a steady annual decline across the United States, irrespective of many well established conservation practices in place to mitigate this. Supplemental feeding is one such technique that is a widely used tool in bobwhite management, but the methods and results of the studies to investigate the effectiveness of this method are highly variable. The effectiveness of supplemental feeding practices is further hindered by the limited knowledge regarding the nutritional requirements of wild bobwhite because many of the guidelines that researchers follow are based on species of Galliformes that are primarily used for production. Here, we review supplemental feeding studies, nutritional requirements of bobwhite, and discuss future directions.