BirdTrout
Open the map
Northern bobwhite
Colinus virginianus
Northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) is present in 4 of the 5 states this app covers, and every one of them sets a season for it. It is strongest in North Carolina, where it is well established. Of the states that set one run of dates statewide, the longest season is North Carolina's at 100 days, November 21, 2026 to February 28, 2027.
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from each state's own agency
The bird
A small covey quail in steep decline across nearly all of its range. It wants brushy fencerows, weedy field corners and shrub thickets — the scruffy edges that modern field margins have largely removed, which is the whole story of what happened to it. The male carries a bold white throat and white eyestripe outlined in black; on the hen both are buff.
Written for this app. Not an agency description and not a regulation — everything below this point that is a rule or a date carries the agency it was read from.
State by state
The comparison this page exists for. The band is an editorial summary of the bird's status on the same five-step scale in every state — not a population estimate — and the season is that state's own, against that state's own licence or season year, which do not line up with each other.
| State | Status | Season | Days | Bag | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | barely present | October 20, 2025 – November 14, 2025 zoned | — | 5 per day, 10 in possession | 2025–26 |
| Wisconsin | barely present | October 17, 2026 – December 9, 2026 | 54 | 5 per day, 15 in possession | 2026 |
| Virginia | thin and local | November 7, 2026 – January 31, 2027 | 86 | 6 per day | 2026–27 |
| North Carolina | well established | November 21, 2026 – February 28, 2027 | 100 | not published | 2026–27 |
A bag this app cannot state as one number is left empty here rather than guessed. Some of these states publish none for a species; others publish one that changes by zone, or partway through the season, and no single figure would be true of the whole of it. A wrong limit is worse than a missing one, because it looks researched.
Northern bobwhite in Michigan
All but gone. It hangs on in a few of the southernmost counties and nowhere else, which the occurrence data on its card shows plainly, and Michigan publishes no bag limit for it.
- Northern bobwhite hunting in Michigan — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Michigan
- When the season opens — Michigan
- Where to hunt it — Michigan
- Regulations — Michigan
- Hunting report — Michigan
- Michigan hunting regulations
Northern bobwhite in Wisconsin
The extreme south-west, at the northern edge of the species' range and thin even there. Wisconsin does set a season — statewide, five a day, from mid-October to early December — but the season is statewide and the bird is not.
- Northern bobwhite hunting in Wisconsin — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Wisconsin
- When the season opens — Wisconsin
- Where to hunt it — Wisconsin
- Regulations — Wisconsin
- Hunting report — Wisconsin
- Wisconsin hunting regulations
Northern bobwhite in Virginia
The Piedmont and the south-east are the quail ground, and the long-term trend is down. Note the closure: quail is shut on all public land west of the Blue Ridge, and on Flippo-Gentry WMA.
- Northern bobwhite hunting in Virginia — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Virginia
- When the season opens — Virginia
- Where to hunt it — Virginia
- Regulations — Virginia
- Hunting report — Virginia
- Virginia hunting regulations
Northern bobwhite in North Carolina
The Piedmont and the coastal plain, and the one state on this list where the bobwhite story is not simply decline — NCWRC runs an active restoration programme, the CURE co-operative, on focal landscapes.
- Northern bobwhite hunting in North Carolina — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — North Carolina
- When the season opens — North Carolina
- Where to hunt it — North Carolina
- Regulations — North Carolina
- Hunting report — North Carolina
- North Carolina hunting regulations
Cover and tactics
Broomsedge and native warm-season grass with bare ground under it, brushy field borders, and the edge of a cut field against a hedgerow. Quail need to walk under the cover, not through it, which is why manicured ground holds none.
Hunt the edges of managed early-succession fields and the borders between crop and brush. Coveys hold in a few known spots and use them year after year; the singles after a covey rise scatter into the thickest nearby cover.
A pointing dog with range, on ground open enough to use it. Wild-bird quail hunting on public land is a matter of covering a lot of edge to find few coveys.
Written for this app, and general to the bird rather than to a state. Where a place changes it, the regional pages below say so.
By region
- Northern bobwhite hunting in southern Michigan
- Northern bobwhite hunting in the Virginia Piedmont
- Northern bobwhite hunting in the North Carolina Piedmont