FIRE EFFECTS AND USE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Colinus virginianus | Northern Bobwhite 



DIRECT FIRE EFFECTS ON ANIMALS : 
Fires during the nesting season may destroy nest eggs and young chicks
[22].


HABITAT RELATED FIRE EFFECTS : 
Prescribed burning has been deemed one of the most effective means of
stimulating and controlling vegetation for improvement of northern
bobwhite habitat [15].  Prescribed fires in the pine forests of Alabama
increased the number of legume species and improved these species'
quality, which caused an increase in quail numbers [21].  Burning in
these habitats after March, however, can kill lespedeza, an important
food, as well as destroy nesting cover [22].  Frequent fires that do not
allow regeneration of adequate nesting cover may also be detrimental to
quail.

Pine-oak types in Georgia were burned each year for 3 years to determine
the effects of fire on northern bobwhite nesting success [23].  Sites
were burned in late March and early April.  The most preferred nesting
sites were those areas left unburned for 1 year. Those burned in the
current spring were least preferred.  Lotebush, the primary cover for
bobwhite quail in the Texas Rolling Plains, increased in response to
prescribed burning.  Shrubs, however, did not fully recover and become
useful to quail until the 5th or 6th postfire year.


FIRE USE : 
Prescribed burning can improve and increase food species, clear dense
vegetation, provide more forest openings, and encourage early seral
types that provide cover [3,11,18].  Fire is a frequently used
management tool for northern bobwhite habitat improvement in the South
[15].  Here, late winter or fall burning is recommended over spring and
summer burning [11,21,22].  Burning between mid-February and the end of
March can make available seeds that are buried below the duff layer.
Insects begin to emerge after March in the South, and late-spring fires
could kill this food source, as well as consume seeds, important to
northern bobwhite [15].  Other evidence suggests that spring or summer
fires may increase food plants, including some legumes and Desmodium
spp. [25].  Prescribed burning should only be employed if, after
determining quail population limiting factors, fire can improve those
limiting factors [22].  Renwald and others [24] make recommendations for
burning in mesquite types to ensure adequate bobwhite quail cover.


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Colinus virginianus | Northern Bobwhite