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Our Upland Birds are having a very tough time these days. Land usage and management practices have changed drastically in the past several years and those changes have not been very good for our Small Game Population. Along with the decline of the Fur Trade Industry and the numerous new Federal Regulations Protecting most Avian Predators, our small game population has ended up nearly out numbered by their enemies. It has become extremely difficult to find those tiny hidden places that birds do well enough to reproduce and achieve a suitable population for hunting. Their present habitat conditions have resulted in Wild Bird hunting becoming very hard to find and extremely expensive. Folks have had to resort to hunting on Preserves with Pen Raised Birds. Pen reared birds simply do not have what it takes to even resemble the behavior of their wild counter parts.

There has been quite a bit of research done to learn the best ways to help the Quail and increase their numbers. With all that has been tried it all comes down to suitable Habitat. Not many small working Farms and large active Plantations left in the Southeastern United States and they were just what the Quail needed.

Cattlemen have been converting their Pastures from Summer Season Grasses to Winter Grasses for some time now and it has been Devastating to the Quail. The birds need a low understory of growth and have their feet on some dirt. They also need plant growth age diversity in their range. Now days, to have a Healthy Upland Bird Population land owners have to Farm for Quail. Woodlands and Winter Grass Pastures don�t offer much for a healthy Quail Population.

The picture above may look like promising Quail Habitat to some folks; however, that is just not the case. Most farms and pastures now a days resemble manicured lawns unlike those of yesterday. Quail use edges as escape cover and protection from their many predators. Being as tasty as they are, every meat eater on land and in the air favor them as a delicacy. Commercial farming techniques doesn�t leave very many escape routes for them to use in emergencies.


The success rates of releasing pen raised birds is very low. Even with some of the new release and raising methodologies such as the Surrogator, by Wildlife Management Technologies has it�s downsides. With the Surrogator you can raise a chick from a day old to 5 weeks in isolation and release them before they become too accustom to people; however, from the reports I have read the birds still need their Mama to teach them the ways of the wild; otherwise, it is probably a lot like the movie Lord of the Flies; however, many say it seems to work quite well in areas with suitable Habitat and an Efficient Predator Control program.

Could this be hope at last! I sure hope so!
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