Reproductive Strategies, Success, and Mating Systems of Northern Bobwhite in Missouri

To better understand the reproductive mechanisms that enable northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) to recover from high annual mortality, we studied the reproductive strategies, success, and mating systems of 321 radio-marked bobwhite in northern Missouri during 1990-92. Seventy-four female and 43 male bobwhite incubated 159 nests. Females exhibited apparent monogamy during 60% of nesting attempts and apparent polyandry during 40%. Over the entire nesting season, 71% of females were polyandrous. Of those birds alive 15 April (n = 112 F, n = 148 M), 40.2% of females and 13.5% of males successfully hatched ≥1 nest. Seventy-four percent of females (n = 42) and 26% of males (n = 50) surviving until 1 September successfully hatched ≥1 nest. Nesting females that survived the nesting period incubated a mean of 1.8 nests (SE = 0.13), and males incubated 1.0 nests (SE = 0.04). Of those birds that failed on an initial nesting attempt, 57.9% of females (n = 38) and 2 of 23 males incubated ≥1 renest. Of those females that were successful on their initial nesting attempt, 25.7% attempted second nests. Female first nests represented 45.9%, female renests 20.1%, female double-clutch attempts 5.7%, and male-incubated nests 28.3% of all nests located. Nest survival was 43.7% (SE = 3.9). The reproductive system of northern bobwhite enables recovery from low annual survival or periodic catastrophic declines and may be an adaptation to fluctuating resources in ephemeral, dynamic habitats.