Characteristics of nest sites of northern bobwhites in western Oklahoma

Previous authors have described nesting habitat of the northern bobwhite (C olinus virginianus) throughout its range, but few have compared structural or compositional differences of vegetation between nest sites and random no n-use sites, and successful and non-successful nests. From 1996-1998, we co mpared cover and structure of 85 plant species from 80 nest sites of northe rn bobwhite in western Oklahoma. Nest sites were consistently associated wi th greater structural complexity than what was available at random. Bobwhit es selected nest sites with a greater coverage of grass (ca, 50%) and woody (ca, 20-30%) vegetation with a relatively low percentage of bare ground, p resumably because these attributes maximize their chance for successful rep roduction by providing protection against weather and predators. Successful nests were more concealed during 1996 and 1997 (12.37 and 10.74% visibilit y, respectively) than non-successful nest sites (21.6 and 27.65% visibility ), but levels of concealment did not differ during 1998. We found no signif icant differences in vegetation composition or structure between successful and non-successful nest sites.