This state's classification carries no date range for the species.
MN DNR regulations explicitly list bobwhite quail among protected nongame bird species: "Most bird species, including bobwhite quail, swans, hawks, owls, eagles, herons, bitterns, cormorants, loons and grebes may not be taken." No hunting season exists for this species in Minnesota.
Northern bobwhite quail is a protected nongame species in Minnesota with no hunting season since 1958. A remnant population, estimated under 1,000-1,500 birds, persists in far-southeastern Minnesota, concentrated in Houston, Fillmore, Winona, and Wabasha counties, the same four-county cluster named across MN DNR's own 2015 legislative feasibility study and independent Breeding Bird Atlas/conservation-press sourcing. This population's status carries a real evidentiary caveat: the Minnesota Ornithologists' Union removed northern bobwhite from its official records list in 2004, reclassifying it as extirpated because 'all records are presumed to be escaped or released individuals, unless there is documentation with a record to suggest wild origin', so this region describes where quail are found in far-southeastern Minnesota, not a confirmed, unambiguously self-sustaining wild population. DNR has invested habitat specifically toward the population regardless: a 76-acre addition to Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest along Winnebago Creek in Houston County, dedicated to bobwhite quail habitat.
No formal population survey program exists for this species in this state.
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