Abstract
To test prevailing paradigrns of habitat management for northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus), we analyzed relations between the abundance of these birds, land-cover classes, and landscape metrics on Oklahoma farms and ranches (200-ha areas; n = 78) during 1998-1999. Based on replicated call-count indices, bobwhites declined (-0.03 to -0.07 males/ha; 95% confidence level here and below) with the quantity of an area in mature woodland, and increased (0.02 to 0.05 males/ha) with the quantity of brushy prairie or early successional woodland. We observed highest populations in the absence of cropland agriculture. Bobwhites declined as Shannon diversity of cover types (-6.0 to -0.01 males/Shannon unit), patch richness (-0.08 to -0.02 males/patch), and the density of woody edge (-0.027 to -0.003 males/m/ha) increased. Bobwhites responded more strongly to the composition of land-cover classes on areas than to the configuration of these classes in areas. Our results did not support the patchwork agriculture model of bobwhite abundance or the principle of edge. Results were consistent with a hypothesis that predicts bobwhite abundance is a nondecreasing function of usable space in time.
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